Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video]

Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by syats on Thursday July 16, 2020 @05:12AM (#23857165)

The video is very good. i) It teaches basic gear-ratio concepts ii) it showcases an amazing repertoire of reduction modules, iii) it poses interesting questions regarding power transmission like: how much power is being dissipated throughout the system? or.. where is all the power of the motor going if you leave it running for 1 hour? iv) it motivates borderline philosophical question like: is the figurine at the end actually moving at all due to the gears? v) it has really good video editing / camera work

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by frabert on Thursday July 16, 2020 @05:16AM (#23857188)

On a practical level: no, it's not moving at all since all the movement is being absorbed by the slack between the gears.

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by StavrosK on Thursday July 16, 2020 @06:54AM (#23857646)

There's a video of one of these constructions where the last gear is bolted to a wall or something.

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by sgerenser on Thursday July 16, 2020 @07:51AM (#23858020)

Might be think of “machine with concrete” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5q-BH-tvxEg

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by lumberingjack on Thursday July 16, 2020 @08:10AM (#23858157)

I feel like doing the project in Lagos is going to confuse people but when you put the final gear bedded into concrete that sort of gets the point across

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by StavrosK on Thursday July 16, 2020 @07:56AM (#23858053)

Yep, that's exactly it, thanks!

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by pwagland on Thursday July 16, 2020 @11:18AM (#23859853)

And as per that top voted comment:

The question of whether the last gear will break the concrete is moot. The gears themselves will erode away to nothing before they get a chance to apply much torque to the final gear.

I think that the same argument can be made to this Lego demo as well ;-)

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by ainiriand on Thursday July 16, 2020 @05:45AM (#23857329)

If we consider the gears a perfect mechanism with no loss due to friction or wear then yes, it moves. Probably in a sub-atomic scale, but yes.

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by hoseja on Thursday July 16, 2020 @05:54AM (#23857363)

Unless space-time is quantized.

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by trentdk on Thursday July 16, 2020 @07:58AM (#23858075)

My mind just exploded. Would you have to breach a threshold to jump to the next state?

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by Akronymus on Thursday July 16, 2020 @10:50AM (#23859544)

From my understanding, you start with a 0% chance to be in one state and 100%[1] to be in the other. Then the probability starts shifting more and more, till it is the other way around.

At least that is what I think it is, due to me having a very limited amount of knowledge in quantum physics. If a expert could confirm/deny my reasoning, it'd be appreciated.

[1] That is probably an exagerration as it would likely span more than just 2 possible states at any one time, but I chose two as a way to make it more understandable.

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by sjwright on Thursday July 16, 2020 @12:13PM (#23860434)

It’s true for converting liquid into gas.

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by nkrisc on Thursday July 16, 2020 @09:04AM (#23858569)

So we could measure its movement in arc-Plancks?

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by saalweachter on Thursday July 16, 2020 @10:00AM (#23859057)

Assuming the query [10^100 planck lengths to lightyears] is a correct interpretation of the question, a tooth on the first gear would need to move ~10^49 light years (well, in a circle) before a tooth on the last gear moved 1 Planck length.

I am less familiar with arc-Plancks, but I assume that is sufficient to say "the last gear doesn't move".

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Re:Making a Googol:1 Reduction with Lego Gears [video] by lmilcin on Thursday July 16, 2020 @08:44AM (#23858400)

Yeah, and also this is material for kids and something we already teach them at schools and not "intellectually stimulating" stuff for HN.

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