Thread: Minibot Ramp
View Single Post
  #16   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 15-05-2011, 22:11
Richard Wallace's Avatar
Richard Wallace Richard Wallace is offline
I live for the details.
FRC #3620 (Average Joes)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Rookie Year: 1996
Location: Southwestern Michigan
Posts: 3,667
Richard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond reputeRichard Wallace has a reputation beyond repute
Re: Minibot Ramp

Quote:
Originally Posted by Duke461 View Post
... on wikipedia it says the Cycloid is for "the curve of fastest descent under gravity". Does this method still apply for upward descent?
The cycloid curve solves the classic (~300 year old) brachistochrone problem. The important feature of a such a "curve of fastest descent" it that it converts all of the falling particle's energy from vertical to horizontal motion in the least time. Applying the same criterion in reverse, to convert a minibot's energy from horizontal to (upward) vertical motion, will yeild the same curve.
__________________
Richard Wallace

Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
since 2003

I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)