Recent content by Luke Smith

I do want to point out that during normal operation the crank gear is horizontal. I'd think any flywheel-like behavior would be negligible because gravity would create a moment perpendicular to the axis of rotation and, like Dr. D said, the torque due to gravity is negligible compared to the...

I transferred into the program as a junior, so I only have two years left. Three with a co-op. What I'm hearing is working during a school semester is a bad idea. I'll keep that in mind.

Interesting. I'm not very familiar with vibrations on systems. Is there a simple way to understand how the offset mass helps buffer the vibrations felt by the frame? My problem was that I visualized the crank as rotating about the driving gear. This would create a varying torque, but it would...

I just transferred to a 4 year university from a community college. I got all of my gen. ed and core engineering classes out of the way at the community college while working 28 hours a week. It was a challenging balance, but I managed just fine. The difference now is not so much the difficulty...

I agree, the torque due to gravity is minuscule compared to the torque supplied by the motor. The question applies to Euler's second law for rotating bodies and the parallel axis theorem. Euler's law states ∑M = Iα for bodies rotating about an axis through their center (or wherever the moment of...

I'm working on a project involving analyzing the motion of a reciprocating saw. This saw converts rotational motion from an electric motor to linear motion by means of a slider crank mechanism. The power transmission goes from motor and attached driving gear, to crank, to connecting rod, to...