Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.213) on May 26, 2003 at 00:04:05:
In Reply to: Question for John Collins - Position of CoG ? posted by Fletcher on May 25, 2003 at 22:09:23:
Yes I hope someone solves the puzzle too, although I don't know how I shall send myself to sleep each night as I have done for the last thirty years or so, if someone does.
It's no imposition Fletcher, I love it. Firstly I think it's an unbalanced wheel, that's just my opinion of course but I can't see how else it could be done, if we restrict ourselves to just relying on gravity. I know many others propose an additional force, but I have always relied on Bessler's belief that it was gravity alone. Not that he stated that as a fact, it is just my subjective impression.
The CoG has to be constant IMO, because the one-way wheels started spontaneously and it was therefore already to one side of the actual centre. I don't think that it was variable although you might be able to show that there was some minor oscillation from side to side as the the wheel turned.
Now for the tricky bit - should it be above or below the horizontal line made by the axle? In a wheel designed to turn clock-wise I think it would ideally be towards nine o'clock, in other words on the line. I can't see how it might be possible to raise it above the line, although I may be wrong, because it seems to me that since the gravity effects both sides of the wheel at once, just getting the CoG even up to the level of the axle would be impossible. I think it has to be, in a real situation, somewhere around seven or eight o'clock.
Don't forget, it doesn't matter how close to bottom dead centre the CoG is, as long as it's not on the vertical line running through the axle. Any distance, however small, to one side of that line is all that is needed. So forget the horizontal line and try to keep it to one side of the vertical one.
JC -
: First let me say that I sincerely hope that Darren or any one else of us solves this riddle. It has occupied my waking & sleeping hours for far to many years.
: I would like to pose the following questions to all in the group! For those reading these answers it may help clarify some thinking. For John Collins my apologies as it seems like another imposition on your time & charitable nature.
: In your design approach/do you currently think, that the answer to Besslers Wheel is an unbalanced wheel. If so, using a clock face where do you see the resultant CoG position?
: If this CoG position is below the horizontal line made by the axle, is this a show stopper & why?
: Is this CoG position constant, or variable (i.e. oscillating [rhythmic or chaotic] or maybe moves further from centre as RPM increases?
: None of the above i.e. uses another method that creates the illusion of Out Of Balance to the observer but infact is using a function of another force acting with gravity to achieve the result.
: Is a hybrid of shifted CoG & another force acting in tandem with gravity?