Trammel of Archimedes - Do Nothing Machine part 2 // Homemade Science with Bruce Yeany

Do nothing machine, B.S. grinder, Trammel of Archimedes, they've gone by all sorts of names, when used for drawing it's an ellipsograph. I show it as a lever that switches back and forth from a first class lever to a 2nd class lever. In doing so it is able to trace out ellipses on the handle. It is an interesting piece that shows how circular motion consists of two sinusoidal oscillations. On the practical side it has commonly been used for drawing out ovals for picture frames.

[Malidictus]

This is odd. Why use a slowmo version of moving the trammel quickly as opposed to just moving it slowly? Is there some some function of it which doesn't scale down like the "balls on various shaped tracks" experiment?

[guszimbalist]

Looks like a good explanation of a radial engine

[chrisdesign]

respect for this teacher who is giving the right knowledge to the next generation

[compressorhead]

That is the most satisfying thing I've ever seen

[bmitchellmusic]

Zero need to know this stuff. It’s unexplainably soothing to watch.

[juanvelez]

if we had a teacher like this in every classroom in the US we would be #1 in the world in education.

[calebconcept]

LOL!! "2 is better than 1". Great job, my kids love your videos and I learn something from time to time too!

[jonesscotta]

Bruce, you inspired me to build one of these! Add some magnets and stick it on either a dry erase or refrigerator. Thank you for what you do.

[glennmr]

dear Bruce! - i am indebted to you for showing this so clearly! I can see that this is truly more than just a 'do-nothing' device - it has for eg. 2 phases of accelleration per cycle, and 2 of the opposite! and so i can now see how it can be adapted into a magnetic device! ... .. .

[tomashorst]

I'm seeing a perfect gift for a 4 year old.

[butcherbakercandlestickmak]

this guy's just a plucking genius in his delivery, great entertainment, thoroughly happy to be a part of this quality thread much jokes a ha ha, might have a good dream tonight wondering what funk good this ching is, maybe save world in dream like megahero !

[portblock]

very satisfying to just watch and look at.

[carmelpule]

Ingenious machines which draw curves with an ever changing radius through vector addition. It is interesting that the centre of the pivoted points seem to describe a perfect circle. It is not exactly a do nothing machine as it is a system where vector addition and subtraction and components of a rotating vector are seen before one's eyes. There is a relation between two phase and three phase motors in those two systems where one uses 90 degrees phase shift while the other 120 degrees phase shifting. Congratulations on your workmanship and the concept itself which says a lot about multi phase systems.
Well done.

[greenjelly]

Here's what I realized at the end of this video...



The real do nothing machine is I, sitting and watching youtube videos when I should be working.

[ewauvwas]

memorizing!! these kind of mechanisms are way more handy then you'd think! It's these kind of marvels that are used in old-time automation processes!!

[kennethflorek]

Interesting that you could not find a reference that explained a connection of this to Archimedes. It does look like a "locus of points" problem, which the Ancient Greeks were fond of. An ellipse being the "the locus of points the sum of whose distance from two given points is a constant" is such a problem.

 As one person pointed out in your other video on this, there is a 1/4 cut-down version of this. In that, you would have a stick with two nails that rub along the edges of a right-angled wood block, but one end of the stick would extend far beyond the nails. A question Archimedes might have set for himself is "What is the locus of points of the end of the stick." Since analytic geometry did not then exist (and therefore you could not find the equation of the curve), it would have been very difficult to prove the curve was a segment of an ellipse, just the kind of thing Archimedes relished.

There is another layout trick (based on geometry) I have heard about, for marking out an arched doorway. You put a nail on each side of the doorway where the arc is to begin and end. You nail two sticks together so that the notch where the sticks join is at the high point of the arch, while the sticks rest on the nails at the side of the doorway. When you slide the sticks resting on the nails from one side to the other, a pencil in the notch will trace out an arc of a circle. In other words, you can layout a circular arc without ever finding the center of a circle. (In fact the angular part of the circle is twice the angle of the notch, by a theorem in geometry. A 90 degree notch produces 180 degrees of a circle.)

[_Loz_]

You can tell this guy does this for hours a day. Fun stuff bro.

[Chilley]

I love your videos sooo much! I would give anything to have u be my science teacher!

[AKATEATime]

Oh wow, I've never seen one with 3 channels. I've never known a name for one either. I saw a 2 channel one when I was pretty young and went home and made one in my Dad's wood shop. He couldn't believe I remembered it that well. Heh Thanks for this video! :-)

[stoneseabolt]

I am 100% going to go buy some wood and some lexan to make one of these. I love stuff like this. It may "do nothing" but it's incredibly interesting and the fact that something like this even works at all with how perfectly it has to be designed and coordinated has always amazed me. One that operates on 3 axis' would be the best conversation piece to have on my coffee table for people to play with and be amazed, then they'd be more amazed that I managed to build it.