The Slinky vs. The Escalator

I think the childish amusement would be due to the crowd of people watching the Slinky and preventing other people from using the escalator.

Then, if the power goes out or someone switches off the escalator, the chorus of "Awww" will delight me immensely.

regards,

Vulcan

Most children have short attention spans so as to being endless?

ozzb,

I didn't say anything whatsoever about children being amused, I merely mentioned childish amusement

Al

Even I can be childishly amused but its not endless. To me more amusement would come from faces of those frustrated who wanted to use the escalator and real pleasure from the faces of the children that look on with joy. Some as they nagged their moms in to buying them a Slinky. You sure your not an advertising executive for the company? Just getting a feel some promotion gimmick? If not here's your chance.

By granny, I think you may have finally come up with something which could be called "Perpetual Motion!"

Childish?? Hah! Wanna take a bet on how many of us are gonna try this now?

Hey, it would keep me amused for hours...
Del

But Del, you are a cat! It doesn't take much....=b

It works, not too well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJw0L7fxbF4

There's nothing new under the youtube sun.

Nice one Bhankiii,

This even though not perfect, shows that with appropriately sized steps and the right speed it would actually work

Thanks

Al

It would appear that some sort of precession occurs when the stairs are actually moving, upwars in this case, which sort of throws it off balance. Very interesting! Thanks,

I can't imagine how hard I would be laughing as various unsuspecting shoppers approached the escalator only to find a Slinky Running in place. I can picture them now, nervously stepping around it, trying not to touch it, because they figure it must be a part of something unfathomable & much more important than a simple childish prank.

Great idea!

Speaking of running in place, I wonder if a stairstepper at the gym might be a better place for this experiment - you can control the speed, and not piss off as many people.

For me personally, the "pissing off" (or at least confusing or slightly irritating) of the people would be the fun part! ;)

Is there something that could be done with the diameter of the coil of the slinky, or the diameter of the wire, to affect the rate with which it climbs?

You can changed the mass and properties of the spring to change the rate, but it's a lot easier to keep the rate of the slinky constant and change the rate of the stairs.

Not if it is an escalator at the mall, & I am just a normal citizen. Point taken though.

A slinky that "climbs" ???

Now THAT would be an awesome youtube-worthy video!

Talk about your perpetual-motion imagineering! I would be amused for hours looking for the hidden strings, air blasts, magnetic coils, anti-gravity inducers...

Go Slinky go...you can make it

I suspect that the only amusement which would ensue would be when they threw you out of the mall...

Great idea!

This really would make a terrific project/exhibit. I think you'd need to "design" the treads with a very slight concave curve to keep the thing in place "horizontally"; then you'd need a software driven servomechanism to gradually home in on exactly the right speed for the "escalator", and, the speed control would need to be very smooth. I wonder what the optimum number of optical sensors would be. I wonder what the minimum number of (height of) steps you could get away with.

It would work, and, would be simpler to implement on a sloping conveyor belt. If the conveyor was curved slightly vertically (steeper at the top) you wouldn't need the servomechanism.

The fact that this discussion has lived this long proves the point that we can be amused by just talking about it.

Yep. I've seen it done. If the step size, and the slinky's "period" (the time it takes to cycle) put the slinky in phase with the rising steps (you can imagine what would happen if you put it on the down escalator. Fast time to the bottom. Short slinky fun.), the slinky will endlessly cycle in one spot, because it collects energy from each rising step, at the same rate as it expends energy falling to meet the next one. And it is fun, more because of the bemused looks of the people who see it happening, than because of the slinky itself.

Micah

G'day

If you would put a lab rat in, it would attract a larger crowd and get you in trouble if the rat could not stop it from moving. It could maybe find out how to assist the movement and start manipulating and enjoying it, who knows?

Coming to think of it, I should build a large slinky and try it my self, one day. I wonder what my trajectory would end up being or what it would look like in a 3D animation. Some thing like up and down and in and out and round and round as well as fast and slow at the same time, sort of a thing. If controlled by weight distribution, one could end up making a helix shape while going down hill. Just ad some light spots at strategic spots of the body and it could be observed how the body swirls.

While we are at it, I suggest they should be part of every amusement park or be part of the Olympics of 2020. Down huge ramps and at high speeds and difficult terrain. Don't get me started.

Now, that I have covered the childish amusement bit, I'll have to make one from the least expensive material. Maybe some 50mm black poly pipe, filled with water and held together with some cable ties, will do for starters. Just a big black coil maybe 3m high and 1m ID. With floating end bits you could move over water if skilled in the art of "Slinking". What will they slink on next? I'll send a video once in operation.

Have a great time, Ky.

Childish amusement?, no way. This is a science experiment! Come on guys, get your priorities straight.

Does that mean I should cancel my order for the poly pipe and the cable ties?

No.

You can keep them as a sort of "Personal drain" in your pants for when the bladder is not so good, you will just leave a few damp patches behind you (or stand over a street drain) and also everyone will think you are "built like an Elephant!"......

You may even be able to patent it!!!

What a slick slinky that would be...

Imagine the $$ signs in the eyes of the patent attorney. The meaning of fluid dynamics will change forever and he has to word it.

I usually use CR4 as my "personal drain" and so far never had to worry about damp patches and/or their removal. I go on auto pilot when it comes to what other people think, at least when it comes to "this" zone.

I have worked out, in my head (whats left of it) and over my thumb, that the coil (filled with water) would weigh as much as an elephant in the end. Remember 3m high and 1m wide 50mm poly pipe. I could work it out exactly, which would include the weight of other attachments, but first things first.

Like my self, it would become a very unpredictable monster once up to speed. I shall build it one day and put the video on CR4, not on one of the other exhibitionist freak dealer merchandise boots, lurking for the impossible.

You think I'm joking Andy, don't you. Well, I am not. I have to be were the unthinkable is created, some times. Just for relaxation, like I do my painting. I have even positioned the handles, straps, cable ties and the floats (shock absorbers) at the ends were they belong so a change in direction can be achieved when inside the slinky, slinking away, so to say.

Pure boredom for some but thinkable for me. The bad news is, that only by building it, will one know what that 1 ton monster can be made to do. I can see the face of Pete, at the hardware, when I order it. Poly pipe and cable ties, till the cows come home. Then I'll have to ask the Copper if I could have Sails Rock Hill for the afternoon and I'll be seeing that face again, a mixture of mistrust and curiosity. I'll have his thumbs up, in no time at all.

We have the hills, we have the skills

We have the pipe we have the ties

When Slinky starts moving,

Oh what a surprise.

Gotta go now. Have a great time, Ky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckOd_ryqL40

watch till the end to see working slinky on escalator

Slinkies, like politicians, are fairly worthless, but they deliver such amusement when thrown down the stairs...

Coming back to this thread (I ignored it for a while, to my shame!) I am brought to consider, as any engineer would, sooner or later, whether it would be possible to mathematically describe the necessary size (length, diameter, type of material, various physical coefficients of the filler material, etc.) the necessary slinky design for any particular set of steps, whether moving (as an escalator or slidewalk) or fixed in place, in order to achieve maximum "synchronicity" between the fixed and moving, or moving and moving, components, so as to achieve the smoothest motion with the least expense (from, say, building 75 models, before number 76 kills the experimenter, who, in the interest of the greater good for the engineering community, would have to be a volunteer, selected by force, from the crowd of screaming onlookers, who probably witnessed the other 75 failures. Can't kill the only one who knows what he/she is doing, can we? Assuming the engineer, the he/she in this dissertation [that is, he OR she, not a he/she] knows what he or she is doing. In which case, he or she would be the ONLY one who knew. So, can't kill ... never mind, I'm repeating myself. Too much caffeine late in the day).

Anyone still with me? Anyone want to try to calculate this? or just lay out the mathematical path to follow? Anyone care enough to read this drivel?

I thought not.