2004-06-23

Song of Susannah, bookwarez, and hour glass axels

Song of Susannah
Just found out today the 6th book in Steven King's Dark Tower series is out! I have been eagerly anticipating this! Can't wait to see what happens. Now if only my palm cradle wasn't dead... *sob*

Not a big fan of Steven King normally, never read any of his horror/crime books, but he weaves an amazing tapestry that is the world of Roland, gunslinger. I would recommend -any- one with even the smallest liking for fantasy to read it. Its a ride you are unlikely to forget.

bookwarez
Now I didn't mind paying for Song of Susannah, but at $80, no thanks. So off I go to my usual source of bookwarez, and *gasp* Couldn't join the channel! After a little reading, the following process is required to log onto #bw:

  1. join #bookwarez
  2. type !bw to receive invite to #bw. Type !rules too.
  3. after you have got the invite, join bw


Everything is as per usual.

hour glass axle
Went to the 2nd hand outlet, and found they have sold/lost that toy I was going to use my for physics competition entry :-( So on the way home, I was naturally thinking about a solution, and suddenly realized something: the driven axle doesn't -have- to be a cylinder! If it was like a hourglass on its side, with the rubber band looped around the middle where its narrowest, and winding around out towards the edge, then the amount of torque supplied would gradually increase! This means
  • at first, there is small torque, as radius is small, but high acceleration, as rubber unwinds faster
  • then as the rubber band unwinds up the sides, torque increases, acceleration decreases, as rubber banks now unwinds slower.

This combines to give the result I was hoping for earlier with a 2 drive system: fast acceleration, then slow but high torque drive up the ramp. Now if only the exams can be over quicker!

Back to physics study. ma1001 went alright, lets hope phy1901 does too!

Cheers,
Steve