Posted by Rainer (210.54.101.163) on January 02, 2003 at 02:48:02:
In Reply to: Re: SMOT ramps again posted by John K on January 01, 2003 at 15:09:33:
: Hi Rainer,
: Thanks for mentioning about the steel ball becoming magnetized. It makes sense that that would happen. Can you conceive of a way to demagnetize the steel ball, after each trip it makes up the ramp ?
Hmmm, have to admit I can't think of a way to achieve this .. at least not without losing the energy the ball might have collected.
: Also (I'm sure this has been tried before ), what would prevent you from having a hole in the ramp which the ball would fall into ? After the ball fell into the ramp, couldn't an 'inner ramp' be used to convey the ball back to the starting point ? (Of course the ball traveling down this 'return ramp' would need to be shielded from the pull of the magnets)
On Jean-Louis Naudin's webpage are some variations and explanations of SMOT devices. I think the best way to go are the variations that use another magnet as the 'runner', not a steal ball at all. There are some circular designs out there trying to do so. What catched my eye is that most of them are horizontal aligned .. I think one should do it with a vertical assembly, trying to use gravity as a bigger component. I myself play at the moment with the idea of a topheavy, sometimes balanced, sometimes unbalanced wheel.
Have Fun,
Rainer