A New System for Mass Dampening

摘要

The genesis of this work came from my penchant to observe and analyze simple events. I've long observed how small children (whose legs can't quite reach the ground) can, from a standstill, "pump" a swing up to a creditable height. When I analyzed how this was done, I decided to study this phenomenon in a laboratory setting. As so often happens, a simple inquiry blossomed into a treasure trove of discovery, with applications to stabilizing tall structures and spacecraft. One aspect of my inquiry touched on the Leibnizian discovery of the principle of vis viva, recently discussed by Rachel Brown in the Summer 2004 issue ("The Paradox of Motion"). The pendulum model is my laboratory version of the "swing and child" observation. I devised pendulum experiments to explore the influence of a mass being shuttled inside a closed chamber on the end of a pendulum that was free to swing about fixed point(s). It was found that the pendulum could be made to speed up or slow down through the application of shuttling mass sequences. Depending on when the ball is accelerated off the push-plate, there can be constructive or destructive interference. These sequences involve the influence of gravity working in concert with a well-timed kinetic energy exchange within a closed chamber.