Can an arch make things lighter?

[preoccupied]

Does an arch make things lighter? If I place a weight on an arch, the arch is less effected by the weight because its an arch so does that make the weight lighter compared to if it were on a less efficient structure like a box or pole? I see a lot of use of the arch in construction that does not try to utilize it to make things lighter but as a structural support. If it could make things lighter it's not being used for that. What kind of experiment could show if an arch makes things lighter? If I compare the potential of a structure to puncture the plane below it the arch is less likely to puncture the plane than a straight pole because it has two legs. If I disconnect all joints in structures and still apply the forces then an arch is more structurally stable in its most efficient curve and also the least likely to puncture the plane below it compared to other shapes like a square or triangle that would hit things at sharp angles when the joints disconnect.

[Art]

"I see a lot of use of the arch in construction that does not try to utilize it to make things lighter but as a structural support. If it could make things lighter it's not being used for that. What kind of experiment could show if an arch makes things lighter? "

If you can get hold of a sensitive balance or weighing scales you can test it quite easily .

Put the arch and the weight ,side by side on the weighing pan and weigh accurately .

Put the weight on top of the arch and weigh again .

If both weights are identical then you can say that the forces in regards to gravity are not changed due to the arch .

I like your thinking there :)

[John doe]

I don't think so.
I think your changing the weight Distribution.

[daanopperman]

If you start with a small arch with weight on top , just make the arch bigger until the weight floates away , then the arch made the weight weigh less .

[preoccupied]

@John doe, I think you might be right about weight Distribution. To be good about the hypothesis I ask that does all forms of weight distribution not reduce the weight? If I were to try to make the arch even more structurally sound by layering them on top of each other with a shared arch key would it possibly reach a new situation possibly reducing the weight or if I make the distribution less efficient and more easily broken by bowing the arches in the wrong direction would that reduce the weight? Or will I reach a new situation by layering with a shared arch key arches bowed in the wrong direction which would combine the traits of the easily broken arches? Will anything happen if I place the legs of the arches on the arch keys of other arches? Can I put the leg of an arch through multiple other arches arch keys to make a new situation?

Another form of weight distribution is scale shields. I have been playing with pennies because they can make easy scale shields. I remember having some success a long time ago using scale shields and I am trying to remember what I did.

[John doe]

Structural engineering concepts are very relevant to PMM.
Weight distribution and structural design concepts such as strength to weight ratio, rigidity and how and why they behave this are central concepts to a succsessful PMM. IMO.

[ME]

Stone construction and the arch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdNYTjXJPKE

[preoccupied]

I really think that scale shields can reduce the weight of something. I remember making scales that I wore in my shoes that allowed me to run and jump faster. That was about thirteen years ago. I don't remember what I did. It apparently wasn't very obvious either because I try to put together pennies now of different styles of shields and push on them with my hand to see if I notice anything and I am having no luck with it. Does anybody have any ideas how scales could reduce weight?

[John doe]

I have no idea what your talking about.

[ME]

I suspect those work-shoes with iron-noses?

This is what I think:
When making the end of a rod, a pendulum, or a leg a bit heavier then the Inertia is larger then normal - Like a fly wheel.
You'll need more energy/torque to get it started, but it also resists slowing down a bit more.
Luckily your leg-muscles just grow stronger and adapt (hopefully) for a proper lift-off.
And you don't need your muscles to come back to the ground - until impact.
So there's the gain.

[preoccupied]

@ME - I don't think that I experienced faster running due to the weight of my feet. I picked up incredible speeds beyond normal range of human movement. Two things could have happened. The shields made me lighter. Or the shields made me physically stronger.

I have not had luck with pushing on shields with my arm that I put together with duct tape and pennies. I feel no special effects. This stuff reminds me of dragonskin body armor. Dragonskin body armor is probably the most powerful body armor in existence because the more layers it has the stronger it resists bullets. I mean it resists bullets on the surface because of mechanics that divert force all of the way to the back of the dragonskin body armor shield. The whole body armor shares force from a single impact location. How much reduction in impact force is necessary to reduce the weight of something? They don't reveal how level 5 dragon skin body armor works because it's a military secret now. But one could imagine that the shields might alternate the direction that they are facing with each layer so that a new rotation of scales gets to spread out force, because wouldn't it push into and concentrate on one side otherwise? The more the force spreads out to new scales the greater the reduction of the impact of the bullet. I mean this is just a mechanically better way to make body armor. It creates a soft impact. The only thing that I think could be stronger than this is layers of arches.

[preoccupied]

By arranging pennies in some duct tape and pushing on it with my hand I have not felt anything unusual. I should be running with pennies in my shoes to test this because that is how I remember testing it before. I mean what if there is no effect of any kind with a small amount of force but there is special effects if greater force is used? I think this might be likely because the mechanical trait for a scale shield that is actually real is reducing the impact of a greater force. If I were to fling a penny into dragon skin body armor it would barely use its mechanical traits in the shield but if I shot it with a bullet then all of the mechanical traits of the shield would have to be used to reduce the impact of the bullet. I actually haven't went jogging in a long time and I'm incredibly out of shape and weigh about 230 pounds. I simply can't properly test this on my own right now but it's on my to do list. I do remember successfully running really fast on pennies about 13 years ago.

[John doe]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... wGkqRbj03w

[ME]

I don't know why you want to avoid bullets (which are obviously unhealthy), but as I guess the secondary option to deflect a bullet at an angle seems hard, so a tertiary option is to spread the impact over the largest area as possible because, like water: Pressure=Force over Area, P=F/A.
Maybe dragonskin is doing just that:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Skin

I don't like linking to company pages, so here's another wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weighted_ ... g#Footwear

When you want to pick-up some jogging then I would personally suggest to just start with some long walks or interval-training, check your heart-rate and leave any additional weights at home as your knees and joints already will have additional body weight to process on impact.

--
Cool video John, but why's that url so long?

[John doe]

I don't know mine always seem to come out that way