Quote:
Originally Posted by dlavery
Of course, if the ball were made of tungsten, it would weigh about 3.809 pounds - about 2.5 times as much as the container itself. The dynamic properties of such an object would be .... interesting.
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Interesting indeed. Such an object would stand nearly upright with the ball in the rounded PVC endcap. It might even walk a little ways, end-over-end, when pushed. Like a large "Mexican Jumping Bean," to recall a popular toy from decades ago.
However, FIRST is unlikely to build such objects in quantity. Ingots of tungsten are going for about $13/lb these days. Worked into balls, the cost per pound would go a bit higher.
Hmm. Highly unstable, heavy objects being manipulated by FRC robots? Autonomously?
__________________
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)