Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => New Theories => Topic started by: wheelMetal on 13/09/2016 10:09:24
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Based on the below simulation wheel gifs
The general description of the concept of the wheel
1. the light swinging weights provide extra torque force on the left side (descending)
2. the wheel, in order to balance itself by increasing torque on right (decreasing on left), raise up the heavy ball on the right side (ascending)
3. when the heavy ball is lifted high enough to roll inward (or roll outward) while also push up the swinging weight, the result is an increase of torque force on left, decrease on right
4. the wheel, to balance itself again, rise up the heavy weight again, heavy ball roll inward/outward again..... and so, the process repeat over & over
Questions/Issues
5. due to the torque gain from swinging weights, the heavy ball is already and almost always at the risen position from the start, so
(a) is there a need for an initial external force/push by human factor ?
(b) in this case, the torque gain from swinging weights is equivalent to the external human pushing force, except
(c) friction will reduce the external force, but not with the torque gain from swinging weights.
6. there is energy constantly input to the wheel
(a) heavy ball rolling down, that's influence by gravity, and
(b) when heavy ball push up the light swinging weight, that's heavy ball doing work, or is it gravity doing work ?
7. can the heavy ball rise up high enough, so that it can roll down and push up the light swinging weight, as the swing weight is also blocking the heavy ball from rolling down ? If it can't, then all will fail.
New perception to see Overbalanced Wheel
8. comparing solar cell and overbalanced wheel
(a) solar cell is a device that converts the energy of light into electricity;
(b) what if overbalanced wheel is simply a device that converts the energy of gravity into other form of energy, just like a solar cell ?
(c) or what if the wheel is a device that converts the linear path of gravity energy into circular type (without the gravity effect) ?
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Adding images to show a very fundamental demo of how the swinging of the weight is affecting the wheel's centre of mass
images taken from other site
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Images showing a fundamental characteristic of the swinging weight, by arranging the weights cross image to each other, the wheel remains balanced.
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When a pair of swinging weights face to the left side, torque force increases on the left & decreases on the right. Or the wheel's center of mass shifted to the left side.
And when more swinging weights face to the left, more torque forces increase on the left & vice verse.
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Based on the standard overbalanced wheel design,
when the circle on the left and right are symmetrical to each other, the wheel is balanced; or the torque force on the left and right are equal a.k.a net force zero.
and when given a push to turn the wheel CCW, the left circles lower down and right circles rise up; or left torque force reduces and right torque force increases; or the right side of wheel becomes heavier.
also take into account the external push that turn the wheel, although the right torque force on the wheel increases, but if adding the push force and the reduced left torque together, then left and right force of the wheel is actually equal a.k.a net force zero;
and by removing that push, the wheel will return back to the position where the circle on left and right are symmetrical.
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When combining the balanced wheel of swinging weights & the balanced of standard overbalanced wheel together, the result is still a balanced wheel.
Simply put, a balanced wheel is having torque force equal on both left & right sides a.k.a net force zero, so when combining two wheels both having equal torque force on either sides, the result is still a wheel having net force zero.
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With the combination of two balanced wheels forming into one balanced wheel, and this time by tilting the swinging weights facing to the left, the torque force on the left side increases.
The wheel, in order to balance itself, slightly revolve CCW or raise up the circle to increase the torque force on the right (and also decrease on the left). The wheel at this point is balanced with the circle staying at a risen position on the right side (and lower position on the left). Take note that the wheel is not going to revolve back to its previous position, the circle continue to maintain its risen position.
So what will happen to the wheel when the risen circle on the right side start to roll inward (or roll outward on the left) ?
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Continue from previous post, with a balanced wheel having circle risen up permanently (and swinging weights facing to the left)
And when the risen circle start to roll inward (or outward), the left torque force of the wheel increases and decreases on the right; or the wheel become heavier on the left side.
So when the wheel is heavier on the left, it needs to balance again by rising the circle to increase the torque force on the right and vice verse.
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When an external force (a.k.a using our hand to press/push) is applied to the wheel, it increases the torque force on one side; which in turn cause the wheel to raise up the circle on the opposite side.
The problem with using external force is it need to constantly supply to the wheel; if remove that external force, the wheel will eventually go back to its initial balanced state.
But if this external force is replaced by embedding an extra weight on the wheel, it create a permanent torque force increase.
And then the extra weight can also be replaced by the swinging weights all facing to one side, also achieving the same result of permanently increasing torque force on the wheel.
But the problem is how to ensure the swinging weights will always be facing to one side a.k.a torque force increase on one side of the wheel ?
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Notice that the swinging weights will either be facing to the left, or pointing downward, but never face to the right. So the swinging weights will always increase the torque force on the left side.
Notice the circle weights have an altitude higher on the right side of the wheel, and lower on the left side. So the circle weights will always increase the torque force on the right side.
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Notice the outward area on top right of wheel is empty, while top left is occupied.
Notice the inward area on bottom right of wheel is occupied, while bottom left is empty.
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When thinking of lever, the first thought probably will be the Archimedes' Lever, “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.”
But in the case of this wheel design, it's not exactly using the Archimedes' Lever Principle (light weight longer distance vs heavy weight shorter distance)
The lever principle employs by the wheel design is
- same distance, more light weights vs less heavy weights
In the see-saw example with same distance from the fulcrum
- 4 x 1kg weights vs 1 x 4kg weight = a balanced see-saw;
- 5 x 1kg weights vs 1 x 4kg weight = light weights lift up heavy weight; but if
- 3 x 1kg weights vs 1 x 4kg weight = heavy weight lifts up light weights
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It takes at least 5 x 1kg weight to lift up a 4kg weight on a see-saw platform.
But when distributing all the weights from a see-saw platform to the wheel, it will need at least 7 x 1kg weight to lift up the 4kg weight.
And having more than 7 x 1kg weight can lift up the 4kg weight even higher.
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The left image, the wheel image having a slight rise of circle, shows that the torque difference after subtracting the left & right torque force, is 2Nm.
The right image, using a simplify way of first removing the circles that are symmetrical to each other (or canceling out the net force zero), the torque difference is also 2Nm, same as the left wheel image.
But take note, the right wheel image is only used for demonstration "at the moment", whereas the left wheel image is used for the actual demonstration, as it can show more increase of torque force when rising the circle higher up (or reduce of torque force when lowering the circle down).
But also take note, the wheel don't need to rise the circle too high up, just enough for the circle to roll inward/outward (a side-note, and also able to push up the swinging weight).
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For a standard overbalanced wheel, by embedding the extra weight, it causes the circle to raise up in order to balance the wheel. And when the circle lifts high enough, it rolls down which in turn increases the torque force on the other side. The wheel has to balance itself again, raise up the circle again, but this process ended when the extra weight reaches near the bottom of the wheel.
The solution is to replace the extra weight with the swinging weight, achieving the same process just like what the extra weight did. But this time when the circle rolls down, it pushes the swinging weight up, ensuring the increase of torque force on one side of the wheel will always be maintained.
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When the circle is risen up & the wheel is in balanced state, even a slight rolling inward/outward of the circle can cause the wheel to rotate. It might not be a big rotation, but still can revolve a few degrees, and that can further cause the slope where the circle rolling down to become even steeper. Which in turn can further contribute to push the swinging weight up.
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For the wheel design, the most tricky part would probably be the circle weight pushing the swinging weight up.
Problem 1: The swinging weight is preventing the circle from rolling down
Problem 2: The torque difference gain might be insufficient to enable the wheel to raise the circle weight high enough
Problem 3: How efficient can the swinging weight affect the torque increase?
Solution:
Increase the number of swinging weights to lift the circle weight higher up, which in turn cause the slope to become steeper; using the lever principle of having more lighter weights to lift up heavier weights.
But adding more lighter weights (also means adding equal number of heavy weights as they work in pairs) would increase the diameter of the wheel, and making the wheel more heavy and bulky.
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The mass of the wheel (only the wheel, not including the circles & swinging weights) can greatly affect overall performance.
If it's too heavy, the COM (center of mass) would end up too near to the fulcrum, it might negate the torque difference gain of the wheel. Basically instead of having an unbalanced wheel, it would become a flywheel.
It's better to ensure the wheel is structured to be as light as possible, while still able to support all the circles & swinging weights. It should be those circles & swinging weights establishing the overbalance, the wheel's mass should minimize its interference.
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Overbalance VS Flywheel
A Flywheel is a rotating medium with its mass evenly distributed, a very "perfect" balanced wheel that is used for energy storage, .... but not talking about its storage capability.
If I push a flywheel, essentially I am adding extra force (or weight) on one side of the wheel, which in turn cause the wheel to rotate. Or I overbalance the wheel.
When the flywheel weighs 1kg, I can push the wheel with ease. From the perspective of the wheel, it felt a strong force apply to it.
And when the flywheel weighs 30kg, I find it difficult to push but still can rotate the wheel. From the perspective of the wheel, it felt a decent force apply to it.
Then when the flywheel weighs 1000kg, most probably I couldn't move an inch of the wheel. From the perspective of the wheel, the extra force I apply is insignificant.
If the extra force is equivalent to the torque increase on one side of the wheel (which causes the unbalance/overbalance), then it's advisable to keep the mass of wheel as light as possible.
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To lift up the box on the right side of the lever,
(a) on the left side, by placing a box near the rim, it take a lesser force to achieve lifting the right box up
(b) and when placing the left box further from the rim, it would result having to use more force to lift the right box up
Due to the wheel design of utilizing more lighter weights to lift up heavy weight, it is better to place the weights closer to the rim for optimization.
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The box that contains the swinging weight & the ball, calls it either compartment or quarter or section.
When the ball roll inward/outward thus increasing torque force to one side, the wheel has to balance by raising the next ball up, or the wheel raise up one quarter/compartment.
Notice the process of balancing doesn't cause the wheel to make one big complete revolution, rather only raise one quarter up or revolve a small degree.
And by increasing the number of quarters/compartments, multiple balls will be rolling inward/outward at the same time;
- with one ball rolling more than half-way down,
- another only half-way,
- another just start to roll down;
which results in the wheel raising the quarters up simultaneously. From the eye-witness/onlooker's perspective, it would give them the impression of the wheel doing a big rotation, but actually the wheel is only revolving small degrees spontaneously.
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A person can walk with ease when he is not doing any work.
But when the person is carrying a heavy load, he will end up walking slow with difficulty.
When a person is turning a hand-crank generator, but the generator is not powering any appliances, he will find it easy to rotate it.
But when the generator is powering some appliances, he will find resistance turning the hand-crank.
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As the core concept of the wheel rotation is based on having one side of torque force higher than the other, the leftover after subtracting the torque force from both sides will determine the energy output or useful power (which will be very small).
And that energy output will affect the rotation speed of the wheel. When the output is not being used, the wheel will rotate normally. But when using the output to carry some load, the wheel will rotate more slowly.
But as long as the work done (carrying the load) does not exceed the energy output, meaning the torque force on one side is still heavier (but much lesser than before) than the other side, the wheel will still continue to rotate.
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Due to the output energy obtained by subtracting the torque force from both sides of the wheel, will be very small.... so it's not going to be the "holy grail of energy" like what some believe, but rather it's more of the "missing pieces" of renewable energy.
Solar energy
- have sunlight, have output; no sunlight, no output
Wind energy
- have wind, have output; no wind, no output
Hydropower
- limited reservoirs
Perpetual energy
- low output, so most of the time it will be storing up its energy
- when solar & wind energy is low, then releasing its stored output
The role of overbalanced wheel will probably be catered more of a support to solar & wind energy, fill up the cons of solar & wind, making the renewable family more complete.
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Using the lever concept employed by the wheel design to lift up a load.
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Since the output of the lever (or the wheel), after subtracting both sides of torque force, is going to be weak, it's better to keep the workload as close to the fulcrum as possible.
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When lifting up a heavy load, can utilize methods like compound pulley or gearing box etc to lessen the workload of the lever (or wheel).
Utilizing the compound pulley (or other similar techniques),
(a) the wheel uses less output to lift up the heavy load
- without pulley and the load is too heavy, the wheel will not be able to lift it up
- using the pulley, it will be able to
(b) the wheel will take longer to lift up the load
- without the pulley, the wheel might take minutes to lift a load up to a certain altitude
- using the pulley, it might take hours to reach the altitude
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How to increase the overall output efficiency of the overbalanced wheel?
Learn from the solar & wind energy,
(a) build bigger
- one good feature of overbalanced wheel is its potential to be able to construct bigger.
(b) build more, build a lot more
- and since the structure of the wheel isn't complicated (just weights & wheels etc), can collaborate with Waste Management, using recycled waste products as the raw materials for the wheel construction, thus contributing to waste reduction.
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When the wheel is rotating, there will come other factors that may serve some unique functions.
Due to the inertia of heavy ball, these balls tend not to roll down instantly under normal condition;
but during the rotation of the wheel,
(a) some balls will experience a push which will speed up their rolling down action
(b) some balls will further delay their rolling down, and this phenomenon can uniquely function as a speed regulation to control the rotation of the wheel
(c) some balls might even result not acting on the wheel, or the wheel will experience near zero torque from some of the balls
But all the features occur during the rotation can only be considered a bonus, as when the wheel is doing work, the rotation will slow down, so most of the rotating features will end up having little use.
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A pendulum, when drop from its displaced position, will swing and past through its equilibrium position, then swing back.
Comparing with the overbalanced wheel, rather than having the acceleration swinging back-and-forth of the pendulum, the rotation of the wheel is of constant RPM, so how will the ball within the wheel react?
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Due to the inertia of the ball, especially the heavy one, it will take some time before the ball can change its state of rest to motion (a.k.a rolling down). So before the ball start to roll down, the rotation of the wheel will have push (or drag, but carry would be a more appropriate word) the ball further forward, away from the center.
Depending on the rotation speed of the wheel,
the faster the rotation, the further the ball got drag forward;
the slower the rotation, the ball only got carry slightly forward.
And since the vector of the ball is pointing away from the center line (equilibrium position) when the ball is push forward by the wheel's rotation, it will contribute very little to the total torque force on the ascending side of the wheel.
But then again the balls near the equilibrium would already have very little torque force (zero torque force at equilibrium position), so it hardly make any huge different.
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When the ball rolls down along the circular rim of the wheel, it does have the effect of dragging the wheel along, thus the wheel will rotate along the same direction as the roll down ball.
But when comparing with the ball that pushes the wheel down, the force exert by the push is much greater than the drag, thus the wheel will rotate along with the push.
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A side info
When the ball rolls down, it drags the wheel along with it;
(a) for a lightweight wheel, having lower inertia, easier to rotate
(b) for a heavyweight wheel (like a flywheel), having higher inertia, much harder to rotate
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A side info
I push a light ball (lower inertia), I can easily move it.
But when I push a heavy ball (higher inertia), not so easy.
When a ball is resting on the wheel, either I push the wheel or a small weight is placed on the wheel;
(a) for a light ball (lower inertia), the wheel can rotate easily,
(b) but for a heavy ball (higher inertia), harder for the wheel to rotate.
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If I continuously supply a force to a balanced wheel, it should keep rotating faster & faster, increasing its RPM. Thus the theory that for an overbalanced wheel, its RPM would keep increasing non-stop.... until it destroys the world (funny believe)...
What if there is an mechanism within the wheel that can regulate the RPM, preventing the wheel's rotation from increasing ?
Refer to image.
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As the ball may take some time before it can start to roll down, so
- the faster the wheel rotates (higher RPM),
- the higher the ball rises (before it start to roll down),
- the more the torque force increases (as the ball is still further from the axis),
- the heavier the ascending side of the wheel becomes (or lighter on the descending side),
- which causes the wheel to slow down, thus regulating the speed
* regardless of whether a heavy ball or a light ball, both roll down at the same time.... like dropping two different mass of objects and both will reach the ground at the same time.
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With the speed regulating function, the wheel rotates in a constant RPM. And when doing work, like lifting up a load etc, the wheel can still rotate in constant RPM, but with much slower speed.
Doing work is basically adding more torque force on the ascending side, thus slowing down the wheel. But make sure after that addition of force, the total torque force on the descending side must still be larger than the ascending.
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A side knowledge
Like dropping objects of different sizes & weighs, and those objects will land at the same time;
the same can be found with balls of different sizes & weighs, roll down & reach the ground at the same time, regardless of their sizes & weighs (but it doesn't apply to all situations)
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A side knowledge
Comparing the circles (with different size & weigh) rolling down at a gradual & steep slopes, and circles falling down vertically.
Most will know objects drop down will reach the ground at the same time, but the circles rolling down the slope can also behave the same, even though the rolling circles have surface contact while another are free-falling.
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Different sizes and weighs of the circles, when rolling down a slope, may reach the ground at the same time; but that doesn't apply for all type of situations.
Comparing between center-heavy, solid & hollow circles
- center-heavy circle rolls down faster
- hollow circle rolls the slowest
- solid circle in-between
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Utilizing how the hollow, solid & center-heavy weights behave when rolling down, implement it to the swinging weights.
- with hollow swinging weight, the rolling ball takes longer to lift the weight up.
- with center-heavy swinging weight, the ball has a faster reaction to lift up the weight.
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More experiment/test on utilizing the hollow, solid & center-heavy, implement it to the swinging weights & rolling balls.
- hollow rolling ball takes longer to lift the weight up, or roll down.
- with center-heavy ball, has a faster reaction to lift up the weight.
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Although the rolling ball (or swinging weights) can be configured (hollow, solid, center heavy etc) to gain faster/slower rolling down rate, but theoretically speaking, timing is not really an issue for the overbalanced wheel.
When the wheel is unbalanced (one side heavier than the other), the wheel can take either a minute to balance itself, or an hour to accomplish the same task; it doesn't really matter unless for some efficiency purpose etc.
When the ball rolls down, it can also either take a minute to roll down & lift up the swinging weight, or take an hour to do so. It doesn't matter how long it took to roll down; what matters is it can achieve rolling down & lifting the swinging weight up.
When doing the wheel design, the concept can either be
1. fast rotation/spinning but unstable
- too fast a spin, the wheel will be experiencing the centrifugal effect;
- weights within the wheel will go haywire, very difficult to get the timing right to achieve some particular task;
- small-diameter sized wheel & huge-diameter wheel tend to behave differently, due to the inertia properties, so maybe the design may fit smaller wheel, but not for big size (or vice versa)
2. slow rotation and stable
- weights & wheel can take its own sweet time to accomplish its task
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For overbalanced wheel, it should be the weights (ball & swinging weight etc) that determine the rotation of the wheel, not the other way round.
For slow rotation of 5RPM & slightly faster rotation of 15RPM, the balls still can roll down the slope. The rolling down action of the ball can cause a shift of torque increase/decrease on the left & right side of wheel.
But for fast rotation of 30RPM, it take around 2 seconds per 1 revolution of the wheel to push the balls to the edges; all the balls within the wheel would not have the time to roll down. At this situation, it is the wheel controlling the weights.
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Checking on the balance between hollow, solid, & center-heavy balls on the see-saw. All the balls weigh the same, with same distance apart.
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Comparing the difference between a wheel with only balls, and a wheel with balls & swinging weights
- change in the symmetry of the balls
- position of ball being risen up (and vice versa)
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Comparing the difference between a wheel with only solid swinging weights, and a wheel with different type of (hollow, center-heavy, center-light etc) swinging weights. The weight ratio of swinging weight to ball is 1 : 1
- change in the symmetry of the balls is the same
- position of ball being risen up is the same (and vice versa)
basically no difference
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Comparing the difference between a wheel with only solid rolling balls, and a wheel with different type of (hollow, center-heavy, center-light etc) rolling balls. All the swinging weights are the solid type. The weight ratio of swinging weight to ball is 1 : 1
- change in the symmetry of the balls is the same
- position of ball being risen up is the same (and vice versa)
basically no difference