Recent content by sophiecentaur

If an autonomous taxi can be operated in a busy city then a remote system on the Moon would need to be at least as competent. In fact, in many ways, a robot, working on its own could likely have a much easier task when 'interference' from other autonomous systems, working nearby. But even then...

But no surprise without an input of unobtanium, I think. Lego has no appropriate parts, afaik.

Yes but not variable and lossless. Same for a lever, too.

Not sure about that. The differential doesn't 'know' what it's supposed to do; it just obeys the 'rules'. Using this system to vary speed could involve dissipating a lot of energy elsewhere, to vary the power delivered to the 'output'. A brake of some sort would achieve what was wanted but it...

I used the term "slingshot" in a generic way. "gravity assist" would be a better term perhaps. Probably not too surprising as the exercise was not to get further away from Earth. I'd imagine that the figure of eight course is to minimise the amount of fuel needed and to obtain the same sort of...

There was a Daf motor car (Variomatic?) that used a belt which operated between a pair of cones which acted like a variable diameter pulley. There was a fair amount of friction there, I believe. But isn't the point of a differential that the two output shafts would be able to turn at different...

I think this is one of those things that we 'learn' first - as a bit of trickery and then follow it up with a believable proof.

This can't be essentially different from any other slingshot calculation (can it?). I guess you're right about the need for changing frames during the calculation The motion of the ship around the moon can transfer momentum from Moon to ship or the other way. The amount of energy transferred...

Would we have 'guessed' that? Is it not the same principle as using slingshot with inferior planets to transfer momentum to Venus and, this, lose orbital energy? The Parker probe did that several times in order to get incredibly close to the Sun. If Orion had wanted a 'prograde?' orbit round...

I should hope so too! Thats probably only a tad more than a modern wedding.

They are both related to 'handwriting' but the trackpad needs less acreage to work on than a mouse - and it's already got a surface to work on. I have frequent 'conversations' on the topic with two of my PC based sons but they are only used to their own laptop pads. Personally, I'm so untidy...

I have ben using an apple trackpad for years now. The trackpad on my MacBook Pro is excellent to use and I cannot understand why people still prefer a mouse with a 'laptop' machine. I guess that trackpads on other makes must be inferior to the Apple system and mouse users are stuck in the mouse...

To avoid over-spending on electricity for your fridge, make sure you have plenty of air circulation at the back ; keep the coils well away from the back wall and never place it in a warm part of the kitchen.

In practice, the standing wave will not be 'perfect'. The range of amplitude with time (and position) inside the resonator will be due to the basic resonance and the power flow through the resonator. The term 'standing wave' refers to a resonator with dimensions greater than a wavelength. A...

We must hope that the action they take will be a good compromise between treasury income and losing votes - as with the rest of our lives.