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Originally Posted by WorldShaper
Thanks for the feedback GeeTwo!
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Always a pleasure to help someone trying to help! Especially someone applying physics knowledge! (My BS and MS are in physics).
Quote:
Originally Posted by WorldShaper
Well now that you say that, its totally obvious.
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So's the wheel, but no one seemed to use it much until a very few thousand years ago. I didn't invent this rule of user interface, just passing it along.
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Originally Posted by WorldShaper
I've edited the original post to contain a spreadsheet that does just that, using Power Factor (Bimba's name for surface area, who knows why) and stroke length.
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As I'm sure you know, the force produced by a piston extending is (ignoring friction) F=Pa, where P is pressure and a is the area. Most typically in the US F is in lbf and P in psi, so the natural unit for a is square inches. Force Factor would be a more accurate name for a, but I'm speculating that the marketing folks at Bimba thought Power Factor sounds more impressive (and inaccuracy aside, I concur). The bottom line is that publishing the "Power Factor" and even making it a central element of the part number makes it easy for engineers (including amateurs, hobbyists, and FRC teams) to figure out what diameter piston their actuator should have.