ANTIGRAVITY BOULDER

real good morning chuckle....
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...hreadid=160851


"ChadMan" wrote in message
...

"Bill Beaty" wrote in message
om...
ANTIGRAVITY BOULDER

If you tie a piece of carrot to a mylar helium balloon, you can
nibble it down until the balloon is neutrally bouyant, and then
it will drift annoyingly around the room.
snipped



Fun reading if you never read it before!
Things that go blimp in the night...
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...hreadid=160851
(watch for wrap)

ChadMan

"Scott Stephens" wrote in message
. net...
ChadMan wrote:

Fun reading if you never read it before!
Things that go blimp in the night...
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...hreadid=160851
(watch for wrap)

ChadMan

Scylla may have been inspiredfrom the movie Darkstar. Speaking of which,
that would be an interesting robotics project. Microwave senseors, bird
feet, a micro-controller with a malevoloent-disposition program. The
floating Firby from hell =)

--
Scott

**********************************

A variation on the theme .. A while back I sent a suggestion
and write up to look at using the 1950's version of an inflatable
plane as a mars flyby observer. Goodyear built a single and dual
seat single engine plane that was dropped by parachute on a small
pallet. The pilot would unstrap and unfold hit the air bottle and
within 5 minutes he had a fully enclosed cockpit ready for flight
airplane called Inflate-A-Plane.

The suggestion I wrote up for Nasa was a variation with a much
longer wing span and a self oxidizing prop drive. The system could
be delivered in a small ballistic entry system that separated and
parachuted as does the rovers systems. At altitude the air craft would
deploy on a tether and inflate. At say 40,000 feet it releases and
goes on a preprogrammed flight path with the ability to modify from
control. Since the system has been proven in a earth dense atmosphere
to carry 2 pilots and associated gear its reasonable to figure a
pilotless version would have a good payload capacity for the mission
envisioned. And it solves many of the delivery and deployment issues
with previous atmospheric fixed wing proposals I've seen.

I submit that a flyable version built from off the shelf components
could be flyable before next mars launch window. And launchable
from a Delta whereas all other proposals require a shuttle flight.

Just a thought that pop'ed in me head....




DIY Piezo-Gyro, PCB Drill Bot & More Soon!

http://home.comcast.net/~scottxs/

**********************************



Paul R. Mays
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Some where within the Quantum State
Http://Paul.Mays.Com/story.html
http://paul.mays.com/mayday.html
http://paul.mays.com/rainy.html

"Now, my suspicion is that the universe is
not only queerer than we suppose, but
queerer than we can suppose... I suspect
that there are more things in heaven and
earth than are dreamed of, in any philosophy"
- J.B.S. Haldane

"Jeroen Vriesman" wrote in message
news
Build a little piece of electronics, regulating the pressure inside to
maintain zero weigt at different temperatures?


You actually hit upon the problems and size requirements
for making a lighter than air craft. The issue to control
the lift you need to take a replenishing supply of gas to
vary lift ratios due to gas escape and temperature variation.

This requires a minimum size to enclose enough lift medium
to lift the associated tanks, valves, controls and the likes.

So to do as you suggest the blimp must be a whole lot bigger
to carry the stuff to make it work correctly...





On 17 Oct 2003 13:04:07 -0700, Bill Beaty wrote:

ANTIGRAVITY BOULDER

If you tie a piece of carrot to a mylar helium balloon, you can nibble
it
down until the balloon is neutrally bouyant, and then it will drift
annoyingly around the room.


(Snipped for the hell of it


(((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
http://amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci



Paul R. Mays
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Some where within the Quantum State
Http://Paul.Mays.Com/story.html
http://paul.mays.com/mayday.html
http://paul.mays.com/rainy.html

"Science tries to answer the question: How? How do
cells act in the body? How do you design an airplane
that will fly faster than sound? How is a molecule of
insulin constructed? Religion, by contrast, tries to
answer the question: Why? Why was man created?
Why ought I to tell the truth? Why must there be sorrow
or pain or death? Science attempts to analyze how
things and people and animals behave; it has no concern
whether this behavior is good or bad, is purposeful or
not. But religion is precisely the quest for such
answers: whether an act is right or wrong, good or bad,
and why."
- Warren Weaver (18941978)

ANTIGRAVITY BOULDER

If you tie a piece of carrot to a mylar helium balloon, you can
nibble it down until the balloon is neutrally bouyant, and then
it will drift annoyingly around the room.

Years ago there was a helium tank at work, and I had a mylar
"space blanket," so I duct-taped it into a tetrahedral bag-shape
80cm dia. and filled it. It gave considerable lift. Brainstorm!
Cover it with duct tape so the neutralizing counterweight is
distributed completely evenly. It would behave like a boulder in
free fall, and should continue rotating around any axis when spun.

I started applying 20cm strips of black gaffers' tape, letting the
balloon stablize before applying the next strip to the (present)
top location. That way the balloon tells me how to distribute the
tape mass evenly. Then I applied smaller and smaller strips as
I got closer to zero lift. It worked great. I ended up with a
huge, black, misshapen "boulder" which drifted around the room.
If bumped, it would rotate end over end like an asteroid. You
could grab it and fling it at somebody, and it would strike them
with considerable impact (since it probably massed about half a KG
not including the air mass it would entrain.) When thrown it
looked very unnatural, since it's trajectory was completely straight.
It also looked very strange to see this large thing drifting around
in the warehouse. After about half a day it settled to the floor
as helium slowly escaped. But I could remove a tape strip from the
bottom to restore it to zero weight again.

Next time: use white tape, then use an airbrush or spray paint
to sketch in lots of surface craters. Or perhaps print out some
actual asteroid photos on 11x17 paper and plaster them all over the
surface (then add some extra helium to compensate.)

Someday I also want to make about fifty of these things and leave
them in a big lab at work early in the morning before the victims
arrive.

Anyone remember the Rocky & Bullwinkle episode about the old
prospector and his mine where he was digging out negative-mass
mineral called "upsi-daisium?"


(((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
http://amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci

Bill Beaty wrote:

ANTIGRAVITY BOULDER

If you tie a piece of carrot to a mylar helium balloon, you can
nibble it down until the balloon is neutrally bouyant, and then
it will drift annoyingly around the room.

Years ago there was a helium tank at work, and I had a mylar
"space blanket," so I duct-taped it into a tetrahedral bag-shape
80cm dia. and filled it. It gave considerable lift. Brainstorm!
Cover it with duct tape so the neutralizing counterweight is
distributed completely evenly. It would behave like a boulder in
free fall, and should continue rotating around any axis when spun.

NASA had/has a purely huge neutral boyancy balloon it used to
demonstrate the difference between mass and weight. You get about 1
gm/liter lift from pure helium.

I started applying 20cm strips of black gaffers' tape, letting the
balloon stablize before applying the next strip to the (present)
top location. That way the balloon tells me how to distribute the
tape mass evenly. Then I applied smaller and smaller strips as
I got closer to zero lift. It worked great. I ended up with a
huge, black, misshapen "boulder" which drifted around the room.
If bumped, it would rotate end over end like an asteroid. You
could grab it and fling it at somebody, and it would strike them
with considerable impact (since it probably massed about half a KG
not including the air mass it would entrain.) When thrown it
looked very unnatural, since it's trajectory was completely straight.
It also looked very strange to see this large thing drifting around
in the warehouse. After about half a day it settled to the floor
as helium slowly escaped. But I could remove a tape strip from the
bottom to restore it to zero weight again.

Next time: use white tape, then use an airbrush or spray paint
to sketch in lots of surface craters. Or perhaps print out some
actual asteroid photos on 11x17 paper and plaster them all over the
surface (then add some extra helium to compensate.)

Someday I also want to make about fifty of these things and leave
them in a big lab at work early in the morning before the victims
arrive.

Anyone remember the Rocky & Bullwinkle episode about the old
prospector and his mine where he was digging out negative-mass
mineral called "upsi-daisium?"

It begs for a large dark room, Day-Glo paint, and a blacklight. "8^)

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" The Net!

"Uncle Al" wrote in message
...

It begs for a large dark room, Day-Glo paint, and a blacklight. "8^)

Strobe light and mirrors all around.

"Bill Beaty" wrote in message
om...
ANTIGRAVITY BOULDER

If you tie a piece of carrot to a mylar helium balloon, you can
nibble it down until the balloon is neutrally bouyant, and then
it will drift annoyingly around the room.
snipped



Fun reading if you never read it before!
Things that go blimp in the night...
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...hreadid=160851
(watch for wrap)

ChadMan

Don't read with anything in your mouth. especially
something you can choke on!!!

I was in tears for a while! Could not stop laughing!

ChadMan

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 15:28:58 -0700, "ChadMan"
wrote:

Don't read with anything in your mouth. especially
something you can choke on!!!

I was in tears for a while! Could not stop laughing!

ChadMan


Same here! ROTFLMAO!

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 16:09:02 -0700, Jim Thompson, said...
On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 15:28:58 -0700, "ChadMan"
wrote:

Don't read with anything in your mouth. especially
something you can choke on!!!

I was in tears for a while! Could not stop laughing!

ChadMan


Same here! ROTFLMAO!

...Jim Thompson


yeah but your wife would have handled it better, no?

mike