Read the article when it was posted yesterday as a matter of fact, but I must have missed something in it...again had Arthur C Clark's vision of towers constructed from diamond mined from Jupiter's Asteroid-belt or some such thing...embedded in my mind from when I read 2061 ten years ago (the details are fuzzy). Your interpretation makes more sense, but now we're into (not insignificant) power distribution. Who knows... perhaps superconductors that operate over a huge range of temperatures (-200 to +200C)... Heh... the problem has so many layers it fascinates me. NEways, like Clark said, "About 50 years after everyone stops laughing."
Far more than an approximation, the center of mass is a fundamental principle in physics as basic as gravity itself.
Take an object...any object into microgravity, and spin it any way you like. Make it spin about an axis, or tumble end-over-end, and you'll find that whatever you do it's going to spin about a single point of its structure. This is the center of mass.
It's really the same thing as the center of gravity for an airplane, but they've applied a different name since by definition we're dealing with a zero-G environment.
NORgasmic
The whole cable thing bothers me... I just don't understand the concept of a tapered cable... In my mind it would have to be formed in a closed loop to keep the distribution of mass equal with a counterweight as in conventional elevators. But this thing tapers at the ends and has a huge bulge in the middle... how does that go around a pully? Even if that wasn't how it worked, how is the cable being driven? where is the end opposite the elevator car going?
My thoughts revolve more around pneumatics as opposed to the linear induction motor. The mass of even aluminum along 36000km would be prohibitive, not to mention the power distribution. Why not simply apply a small amount of air pressure (and a huge volume of air) to the shaft to lift the elevator like the old pneumatic tubes? A pressure of 1psi across the area of a typical elevator (let's say 10'x10') would allow you to lift 14400lbs! (at sea level) I know people will envision air rushing out the open end of the tube, but I don't see this happening, as it doesn't happen in the wide-open atmosphere. The higher the car gets, the less pressure is required to lift it (not to mention gravity holding the air in the tube). Essentially it's just a pneumatic lift (like a hydraulic lift in low-rise buildings). There's probably a lot of holes in this I haven't thought of, and plenty of other solutions to the problem out there besides mine. But I think it's more workable than 47,000km long cables.
Wow... that rambled on a bit....
NORgasmic
Read the article... it's not about going above the atmosphere...it's about reaching geosynchronous orbit...even though the structure reaches to the earth, it's esentially floating in orbit..... very cool... but I have reservations about the use of a cable...seems like an inappropriate solution...
Those interested in a Linux solution, do a search on www.freshmeat.net for "motion". This does everything laid requested minus the cellphone bit and "realtime" access, though the image can be looped back to webcam software. Motion archives mpegs triggered by a motion detection algorithm. I've set this up to watch my driveway and simply access the archived mpegs through a web-accessible folder. Easy to install and use, it does everything including organzing the files by date and naming them by time. Date/Time stamps are overlaid on the mpegs for reference as well.
He's right.... it's stealing!!!
on
Calling Out TiVo
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· Score: 1
I've been fighting that pesky mute button for years, and often warned the kids that for every minuted they talked through the commercials, they'd have to leave the room one minute earlier before the end of the show... 'bout time we see some action on this out and out theft!!!
Slashdot Mirror
Read the article when it was posted yesterday as a matter of fact, but I must have missed something in it...again had Arthur C Clark's vision of towers constructed from diamond mined from Jupiter's Asteroid-belt or some such thing...embedded in my mind from when I read 2061 ten years ago (the details are fuzzy). Your interpretation makes more sense, but now we're into (not insignificant) power distribution. Who knows... perhaps superconductors that operate over a huge range of temperatures (-200 to +200C)... Heh... the problem has so many layers it fascinates me. NEways, like Clark said, "About 50 years after everyone stops laughing."
Far more than an approximation, the center of mass is a fundamental principle in physics as basic as gravity itself. Take an object...any object into microgravity, and spin it any way you like. Make it spin about an axis, or tumble end-over-end, and you'll find that whatever you do it's going to spin about a single point of its structure. This is the center of mass. It's really the same thing as the center of gravity for an airplane, but they've applied a different name since by definition we're dealing with a zero-G environment. NORgasmic
The whole cable thing bothers me... I just don't understand the concept of a tapered cable... In my mind it would have to be formed in a closed loop to keep the distribution of mass equal with a counterweight as in conventional elevators. But this thing tapers at the ends and has a huge bulge in the middle... how does that go around a pully? Even if that wasn't how it worked, how is the cable being driven? where is the end opposite the elevator car going? My thoughts revolve more around pneumatics as opposed to the linear induction motor. The mass of even aluminum along 36000km would be prohibitive, not to mention the power distribution. Why not simply apply a small amount of air pressure (and a huge volume of air) to the shaft to lift the elevator like the old pneumatic tubes? A pressure of 1psi across the area of a typical elevator (let's say 10'x10') would allow you to lift 14400lbs! (at sea level) I know people will envision air rushing out the open end of the tube, but I don't see this happening, as it doesn't happen in the wide-open atmosphere. The higher the car gets, the less pressure is required to lift it (not to mention gravity holding the air in the tube). Essentially it's just a pneumatic lift (like a hydraulic lift in low-rise buildings). There's probably a lot of holes in this I haven't thought of, and plenty of other solutions to the problem out there besides mine. But I think it's more workable than 47,000km long cables. Wow... that rambled on a bit.... NORgasmic
Read the article... it's not about going above the atmosphere...it's about reaching geosynchronous orbit...even though the structure reaches to the earth, it's esentially floating in orbit..... very cool... but I have reservations about the use of a cable...seems like an inappropriate solution...
Those interested in a Linux solution, do a search on www.freshmeat.net for "motion". This does everything laid requested minus the cellphone bit and "realtime" access, though the image can be looped back to webcam software. Motion archives mpegs triggered by a motion detection algorithm. I've set this up to watch my driveway and simply access the archived mpegs through a web-accessible folder. Easy to install and use, it does everything including organzing the files by date and naming them by time. Date/Time stamps are overlaid on the mpegs for reference as well.
I've been fighting that pesky mute button for years, and often warned the kids that for every minuted they talked through the commercials, they'd have to leave the room one minute earlier before the end of the show... 'bout time we see some action on this out and out theft!!!