Here’s What a Googol-to-One Gear Ratio Looks Like
March 7, 2020 12:48 PM Subscribe
Extreme Reduction - 11 million to one gearing is somehow a bit more non-obvious.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:09 PM on March 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by zengargoyle at 1:09 PM on March 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
Bruin needs to hook that first gear up to a Dodge Hemi engine or something. I don’t have the patience to watch a video for an hour just to watch the fourth gear down the line move one tick! I want to watch for an hour just to see the fifth gear move one tick.
posted by ejs at 1:28 PM on March 7, 2020 [26 favorites]
posted by ejs at 1:28 PM on March 7, 2020 [26 favorites]
If he ever decides he doesn't want to keep this contraption around, I hope he hooks a motor up to the other end and films it self-destructing.
(Okay, probably the input or first gear would just snap, but if he could give the other end a push start maybe he could achieve tens of thousands of RPMs before it tore itself apart)
posted by Tehhund at 1:34 PM on March 7, 2020 [8 favorites]
(Okay, probably the input or first gear would just snap, but if he could give the other end a push start maybe he could achieve tens of thousands of RPMs before it tore itself apart)
posted by Tehhund at 1:34 PM on March 7, 2020 [8 favorites]
Inventor: I made this amazing thing!
Metafilter: Let's make it tear itself apart!
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:54 PM on March 7, 2020 [26 favorites]
Metafilter: Let's make it tear itself apart!
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:54 PM on March 7, 2020 [26 favorites]
When I saw the headline, I thought he'd hooked it up the other way: so each gear is faster than the last.
Impossible, but it'd be interesting to know how many gears would be possible...
posted by zompist at 2:03 PM on March 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
Impossible, but it'd be interesting to know how many gears would be possible...
posted by zompist at 2:03 PM on March 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
Smacks of 4'33''
posted by humboldt32 at 2:57 PM on March 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by humboldt32 at 2:57 PM on March 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
>Metafilter: Let's make it tear itself apart!
I'm surprised that there hasn't been a backlash, about backlash. ;)
posted by Dr Ew at 3:06 PM on March 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
I'm surprised that there hasn't been a backlash, about backlash. ;)
posted by Dr Ew at 3:06 PM on March 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
My brain was initially imagining a system where each gear was 10 times bigger than the last - physically, I mean - but of course that would probably require melting down a large number of planets to construct. I'm not surprised he chose to cut corners.
posted by nickmark at 3:52 PM on March 7, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by nickmark at 3:52 PM on March 7, 2020 [10 favorites]
Mind blowing. It operates on a time scale so vast that it makes the Pitch drop experiment look lightning fast.
posted by ambulocetus at 3:54 PM on March 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by ambulocetus at 3:54 PM on March 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
tspae: "BO-O-O-O-ORING!"
No, that's this.
posted by chavenet at 3:55 PM on March 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
No, that's this.
posted by chavenet at 3:55 PM on March 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
It instantly brings me back to being about 8 years old and drawing out increasingly crazy gear reductions for pedal powered helicopters. I had very vivid fantasies of flying these things. My uncle brought the project to and end by explaining inertia.
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:57 PM on March 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by bonobothegreat at 3:57 PM on March 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
but of course that would probably require melting down a large number of planets to construct.
You'd have to wait for Magrathea to spin up manufacturing again.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:25 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
You'd have to wait for Magrathea to spin up manufacturing again.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:25 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Was gonna say something about Arthur Ganson but then I saw the Arthur Ganson tag.
posted by deadbilly at 5:06 PM on March 7, 2020
posted by deadbilly at 5:06 PM on March 7, 2020
I wonder how fast you could turn the slow end of this thing before the outer tips of the teeth on the fast end would (in theory) approach the speed of light.
posted by smcameron at 5:09 PM on March 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by smcameron at 5:09 PM on March 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
Well, if the gears are about 6 inches in diameter, about 9.42 inches in circumference, and each gear turns 10x as fast as the previous one, and the speed of light is 186000 miles per hour, or 196416000 inches per minute... then 7 or 8 gears would get us to 1.9 inches per minute on the slow end, which is 0.2 RPM. so at 1 RPM on the slow side, I guess about the 9th gear would be approaching the speed of light. Did I do that right? Wow.
posted by smcameron at 5:20 PM on March 7, 2020 [12 favorites]
posted by smcameron at 5:20 PM on March 7, 2020 [12 favorites]
I'm surprised that there hasn't been a backlash, about backlash. ;)This is some sort of incredibly targeted "well, actually" resistance test, right? I'm not entirely sure I passed.
But, I am sure this thing is neat. That so many other people think it's neat is also neat.
posted by eotvos at 6:04 PM on March 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
My brain was initially imagining a system where each gear was 10 times bigger than the last - physically, I mean
I must admit, I do not understand how this works with gears of the same size
posted by thelonius at 7:02 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
I must admit, I do not understand how this works with gears of the same size
posted by thelonius at 7:02 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Think of a gear with a 100 tooth circumference. And a smaller gear with a 10 tooth circumference.
Stick an axle through the two gears, so that they are joined together and turn in unison.
Make 100 of those axle assemblies.
Arrange them so that the small gear of the first assembly meshes with the large gear of the second assembly. And the small gear of the second meshes with the large gear of the third. And so on until all 100 assemblies are engaged with each other.
Then start cranking the first axle.* Since the small gear of the first axle is engaged with the large gear of the second axle, it has to rotate 10 times to make the second axle rotate 1 time. Therefore the first axle has to rotate 100 times to make the third axle rotate 1 time. And so on.
*(In the video, there's a motor with a small gear driving the large gear of the first axle.)
posted by ardgedee at 7:16 PM on March 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
Stick an axle through the two gears, so that they are joined together and turn in unison.
Make 100 of those axle assemblies.
Arrange them so that the small gear of the first assembly meshes with the large gear of the second assembly. And the small gear of the second meshes with the large gear of the third. And so on until all 100 assemblies are engaged with each other.
Then start cranking the first axle.* Since the small gear of the first axle is engaged with the large gear of the second axle, it has to rotate 10 times to make the second axle rotate 1 time. Therefore the first axle has to rotate 100 times to make the third axle rotate 1 time. And so on.
*(In the video, there's a motor with a small gear driving the large gear of the first axle.)
posted by ardgedee at 7:16 PM on March 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
chavenet, jazzy mining soundtrack FTW!
posted by Gorgik at 7:34 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Gorgik at 7:34 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
How long would it take the final gear to turn a single hydrogen atom, I wonder?
posted by bepe at 9:15 PM on March 7, 2020
posted by bepe at 9:15 PM on March 7, 2020
Uhhh ... 42!
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:54 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:54 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
If he had the courage of his convictions he'd have had the first gear spinning really fast, just under the speed of sound. It wouldn't have made much difference: all that motion would be accommodated within the backlash of the first ten gears anyway.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:13 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:13 PM on March 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
MY GEAR is Bigger than YOUR GEAR – Industry Battles it Out for World’s Largest Gear Title [pdf],
Matthew Jaster, Senior Editor; Gear Technology, March/April 2013. It depends who you ask and when, but perhaps more impressive are the monumental machines that mill them.
posted by cenoxo at 11:29 PM on March 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
Matthew Jaster, Senior Editor; Gear Technology, March/April 2013. It depends who you ask and when, but perhaps more impressive are the monumental machines that mill them.
posted by cenoxo at 11:29 PM on March 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
I can't be the first person, listening to that over-dramatic music on the video, who waited to see it hooked up in reverse.
posted by Seaweed Shark at 5:54 AM on March 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Seaweed Shark at 5:54 AM on March 8, 2020 [1 favorite]
> Did I do that right?
No, you're off by a few of orders of magnitude. Speed of light is 186,000 mi/sec, not /hr. So probably the 13th gear. But I expect the 1st axle would shear off rather than turning the machine at all.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 9:44 AM on March 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
No, you're off by a few of orders of magnitude. Speed of light is 186,000 mi/sec, not /hr. So probably the 13th gear. But I expect the 1st axle would shear off rather than turning the machine at all.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 9:44 AM on March 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
This reminds me of an old math joke. An attendee at a math conference is looking through the program, but all the topics seem too abstract and disconnected from reality. Finally, they notice a talk on “The Mathematical Theory of Gears.” Relieved, they walk into the lecture hall, and the speaker begins, “The theory of gears with a finite number of teeth is well-understood. However…”
posted by mbrubeck at 10:41 AM on March 8, 2020 [14 favorites]
posted by mbrubeck at 10:41 AM on March 8, 2020 [14 favorites]
From the QA perspective, I am pretty darn sure he didn't fully test this contraption to make sure it works.
posted by storybored at 1:42 PM on March 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by storybored at 1:42 PM on March 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Smacks of 4'33''
There's a Cage piece that's an even better analogy: Organ²/ASLSP, where the performance that started in 2001 is scheduled to be wrapping up somewhere around 2640.
posted by Copronymus at 11:16 AM on March 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
There's a Cage piece that's an even better analogy: Organ²/ASLSP, where the performance that started in 2001 is scheduled to be wrapping up somewhere around 2640.
posted by Copronymus at 11:16 AM on March 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
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It turns so slowly that being set in concrete does not affect the operation of the machine.
posted by benoliver999 at 1:03 PM on March 7, 2020 [19 favorites]