C051109 - Suspended balls

Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby Wim » Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:13 pm

I actually managed to get 16 balls suspended since I was able to add an extra bar to both sides using Supermag. I want to try this with Geomag too. My coworker took a picture with his phone...

Since you're so strict on the no touching clause, I'll see if I can widen the construction a little sometime later.

Supermag Suspended Balls.jpg
Suspended ball challenge (Supermag)
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby Tychi » Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:40 pm

Now is it better? 15 suspended balls(o:
Image
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby El Mundo » Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:22 pm

Well done Tychi, nice work! Do you think 16 is possible?

So far, I've made the legs of my solution, but it's not clear from this pic how it works yet...
moto_0117.jpg
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby karlhorton » Tue Nov 24, 2009 4:07 am

Tychi, great solution!

I assume that your suspension points are of "power" 6, and I think that without more
sophisticated engineering that represents an upper limit.

It's well-known that the maximum number of rods that can be in contact with a ball is 14.
(look for a future challenge from me about this) And I believe that more than six north poles
attached to a single ball are not stable.

In principle the way to overcome this limit is to build a very large structure and use the
very weight of the rods to compress one of the lower joints so strongly that more than
six north poles can come together: I've certainly seen heavy models distort the plastic
covering on Geomag rods.
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby Tychi » Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:32 am

karl, I also tested "power" 7, but more than 15 suspended balls did not hold.
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby El Mundo » Wed Nov 25, 2009 3:42 pm

Seems like you've all got this one pretty much licked. Well done to you, I hope you found it as thought-provoking as I did. For the record, here's my solution...

buckaroo1.jpg


It's a bit tricky to photograph this one, but here's the best shot of the dangly balls :?

buckaroo2.jpg


As with most Geomag creations (especially if you don't have a clear idea of what you're aiming for), this started off as...well, nothing really! The same is true for the Lobster and the StellaFinder3000 (a luminous beer bottle holder, useful in some circumstances anyway!) - some other Geomag creations of mine. You may have guessed by now that the naming ceremony is almost as important as the creation with me.
Last edited by El Mundo on Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby Peter Jepsen » Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:32 pm

Really nice all of you. I thought I had the dark horse idea that would beat them all, but after a brief building session it was back to the lab for me..

And.. Knowing the nature of the Internet, I'm convinced that the sentence between the two photos in El mundo's last post will pop up unintentionally in many a Google search.. ;) By the love of all that is magnetic, it's called "HANGING SPHERES" :D
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby jgnorman » Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:30 pm

hmmm, I must give this a shot after my exams are over. So was the final rod count allowed 96, or 144?
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby El Mundo » Sat Dec 19, 2009 4:59 pm

It was 144, but it is achievable in much less.

Good luck in your exams btw
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Re: C051109 - Suspended balls

Postby Fat_Twerp » Tue Jan 26, 2010 7:02 am

This is niiiice, different to the usual stuff you can do with the geomag

I think you may have created a new genre :)
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