Recent content by jimgram

Work is required to re-position flyweights in a variable-inertia flywheel. Positive work (I.E. work in) when inertia is decreased and negative work (I.E. work out) when the moment of inertia is increased. I guess I should have made that clearer. Flywheels can be used to capture and store...

The fundamental question is: Can we use a variable-inertia flywheel as a power source (e.g. to accelerate a vehicle). I phrased the question poorly. The answer to your question is: I want to transfer energy from the VIF (variable-inertia flywheel) to the load inertia. I understand that the total...

If you model a variable-inertia flywheel connected to a load inertia you have fundamentally a single spinning mass with the ability to vary the mass moment of inertia. The total energy of this spinning mass is constant, so when you vary the inertia, the velocity will change in order to satisfy a...

Thank you - I can hardly believe I failed to consider gear housing torque. Seems I'm going backwards as I get older.

We have a variable-inertia flywheel coupled by a shaft to a fixed inertia flywheel. The VIF (variable-inertia flywheel) has a moment of inertia range of 10 to 5 (m2*kg) and an initial velocity of 100 (rad/s). The fixed inertia flywheel (fw) has a MI (moment of inertia) of 10. The initial...

Ask yourself if a problem is linear or non-linear. For example, if car (or particle)is moving and has a force acting on it (say torque from an automobile engine) then it is accelerating and you need to know its velocity after a period of time. The linear kinematic equation is is vf=a*t. But an...

Machines have no particular use of decimal points. You register '15' (1111 binary or 0f hex) 15 times then shift the decimal twice.

My suggestion for direct solar power has nothing to do with welding...I agree that this would not be practical. I'm looking for advancements in the field of sun tracking and/or energy conversion (e.g. heat to electric)

If you are still interested in direct solar energy (and ENTHUSIASTIC about it) you should do an Internet search. I think your project coordinator may be just a little biased OR - he may just want to see if you are willing to fight for your idea. The argument regarding the time when solar power...

There's always a level of accuracy (e.g. number of decimal points) that must be accepted. What's you point?

If 'x' = 3, then you could find 3^2 by adding x to itself x times (3+3+3=9)

Add \pi to itself \pi times. Microprocessors consist of registers (a series of flip-flops) and memory registers. Parts of the circuits can be dedicated to (using addition) multiplication, division, squares and roots. Along with tables, other parts are dedicated to complex functions (using the...

Consider that in machine language (I.E. hexadecimal or binary) only addition and subtraction are possible. So at the root of all computer programs, the initial machine only adds and subtracts

Another thought regarding your idea of a solar welder: I think I was negative about it too soon. There could be a future need for solar welding in the construction of space stations orbiting the earth.

Is the objective to save the electricity cost of welding? You certainly could generate enough heat but it would be very difficult to get it precisely where you need it. On the other hand, your second idea has much merit. In fact, many experts believe the only practical way to generate...