At 09:33 pm 12-05-05 -0400, you wrote: > > >not used account wrote: > >>For some reason, even the non-looping smot is still a >>little interesting... >> > >Yeah, especially if you can get 1.5 G for one! > >http://www.butlerlabs.com/2ftmagnapulsion.htm > >The SUPERSMOT! I had not heard of butler before I visited SONS.
Having looked at the video (qui vive) on the above site one can appreciate the seductiveness of the SMOT and its scam capacity. By selecting frames from a video of the ball ascending the slope one can convey any impression one wants of the relation between distance travelled and time taken. Also the frame with no ball and no finger gives the impression to a quasi modo optimist that the ball has disappeared over the edge. It is significant that there is no picture of the ball actually exiting the SMOT. Presumably because it doesn't but simply comes to a shuddering halt at the top of the slope. At best it might travel slightly beyond its equilibrium position only to fall back again. I suppose it is conceivable that it might actually go over the edge, come to a halt in mid-fall and be drawn back to its equilibrium position at the point of minimum magnet separation. In principle it could even fall to the "ground" level from which it started but it would be decelerating all during its fall and arrive at the ground level with zero kinetic energy. It would then take off like a rocket and return to its equilibrium position at the top of the slope. The ball has to run on rails in order for a horizontal component force to be generated sufficient to prevent the ball finishing up on one or other of the magnet faces. This must require quite tricky adjustment of the various dimensions. However, the SMOT is a very good failure for getting one to think about the implications of slingshot action. There is plenty of random motion on a small scale. Could one by slingshot action organise it? Could a suitable arrangement of magnets constitute a Maxwell's demon? In other words, could one make the magnetic equivalent of that other intriguing device, the Ranque-Hilsch Vortex tube? Cheers Frank Grimer
