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526 Years On, Da Vinci's Clockwork Car Constructed
SimianOverlord writes "The Guardian (and several other news outlets) report on the attempt by Professor Paulo Galluci and his team to build a working model of Leonard Da Vinci's clockwork powered car, designed in 1478. Previous attempts have been made to create the vehicle, but they failed to work properly. This is thought to be due to a misunderstanding of the original design, which is corrected in the new model. Apart from the 1/3 scale replica, the team have also made a full size model but have not dared to test it. Professor Galluzzi explained "It is a very powerful machine. It could run into something and do serious damage.""
DaVinci's car does not have a driver, and could only follow a set program. At least the SUV you mentioned could be steered or stopped. As you imagine a full-scale model might be troublesome...
Was curious about the drawing and found a copy here (Google cache)
I thought it was a good idea
This is the program I was thinking of - "Medieval Lives"
It's actually a brilliantly watchable series. ;)
Whew, I finally figured out what that said. It only took about 5 mins, a mirror, and some head-scratching.
For all of those who don't have a mirror handy, or are too lazy (who are we kidding
One more thing:
I guess this function knows how big a buffer to convert? I mean, is it converting some words to little-endian or dwords? hmm, what about 64-bit ints? Doesn't seem very clear. I hope this didn't come out of the Linux kernel
Cariolis Effect, I believe, should have no effect on the movement of cars around a track unless the track is very big, as in spanning a large ways north and south (hundreds of miles) and the cars are floating above the track or something. As Cariolis Effect explains the motion of something like clouds traveling southward on the greath sphere that is the Earth (link).
:P There is no "natural" tendency of rotation on the different hemispheres. Or, now, am I missing something even further about the Cariolis effect? I could be. I'm terrible at the sciences.
Contrary to popular belief and that hilarious episode of the Simpsons water doesn't necessarily flush in a different direction on the southern hemisphere
http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/automobile/
actually, the design of _his_ actual parachute was only recently tested. (essentially a pyramid of fabric around a square frame at the base)
This was documented on the Imax "Adrenaline Rush" film and was cool as hell!
-- My Sig is a P228.
They can make that claim, but it wouldn't be true, as the first computer predated Da Vinci by about 1500 years. It's called the Antikythera Device which could calculate the positions of the sun, moon and planets.
common sense: noun
What those who are ignorant of the subject matter think; usually wrong.
For a hires version, try here
For those who are not into the engineering stream, or those who are and yet remain clueless.
This machine works on the potential energy of the spring.
Assume the spring has a spring constant k. The potential energy of the spring system would be 1/2k(x^2). This initial energy will have to be provided by some mechanical means. The power is transmitted to the wheels, which wind another pair of springs(paired for better power output) which wind in the opposite direction, while moving forward. Hence as the energy in the first pair is exhausted, the second pair is fully wound. Now power is obtained from this pair.
It is important to note that the second spring pair will have to have a spring constant k2 = log(k); k is that of the first pair.
The fluctuation in power is a result of the natural frequency of the springs. A powerful damper would be required to arrest the sudden surges. For a k of 10000, a damping factor of 0.99 is ideal.
The speed is again a function of k and k2. As k and k2 increase, speed improves. With a k of 10000 it is possible to attain 12.2 mph. If k = 10^6 we can reach the speed of light, but then such high values of k are impractical.
But the greatest advantage is that:
This machine is self-propelled as in the cnn article, and does not consume any fuel. In fact, the design cannot consume fuel. The mechanical losses due to friction are overcome by the dual spring pair, auto-winding mechanism.
Perhaps, this would boost the interest of the scientific community in spring research.
It's Coriolis - not Cariolis.
Imagine standing at the northpole - or southpole - doesn't matter. Now run directly towards equator. You'll feel a sideways push on your feet. The faster you move the harder the push. Same with standing at the center of a rotating carousel and walking towards the edge. That's the Coriolis force.
The bible does mention the four corners of the earth suggesting that the earth is a four sided plane. But then again it also says stars fell down to earth suggesting that stars are little things in the sky. Finally it suggests that pi = 3 when describing the sea that god made.
Goes to show you should not go to the bible for your science or math unless you live in Montana
evil is as evil does
This site contains a lot of the original da vinci models and drawings
Job 26:10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.
Prov. 8:27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.
Skeptics will assume from these verses a concept of a flat, circular, pancake-like earth. In each case, the Hebrew word here is exactly the same, as Strong's tells us:
2329. chuwg, khoog; from H2328; a circle:--circle, circuit, compass.
And here is where we alert the reader to another key word-concept that is missing in Hebrew: There was no varying word for a "sphere" - a three-dimensional circle. It is not that the Hebrews or anyone else lacked the concept of sphericity (for obviously, they could conceive of it plainly when, for example, they ate pomegranates for breakfast!), but that they simply did not create a second word for it.
But going back in the history of the church, you won't find that everyone suggests that you *should* go to the bible for science. In his Literal Commentaries on Genesis, St. Augustine (~300 A.D.) warns Christians *not* to take it as creation science. Augustine was very much against literal interpretations of the bible; in fact, it's this claim of religion as science that drove him away from the Manichee cult and towards Christianity. The spiritual interpretation of the bible appealed to him greatly.
Bít, zabít, jen proto, ze su liska!
Remember that it's backwards, that means read right to left, bottom to top. It says "This function transforms the buffer to little-endian."
Now who wants to take bets that someone will write a program/script to translate text into backwards 733+ speek?