pic: Fischer Price motor are very powerful

[dlavery]

You mean it's not SUPPOSED to look like that??!?

Actually, the first time I looked at this image, I thought that Team 322 had manufactured an elliptical gear to tailor the delivered torque to certain angles of inclination of their arm (similar to high-end/competition bicycle cranks and chain wheels). I saw the kink in the lower portion of the ellipse and thought "wow - they bent their chain gear; too bad after all that work to cut the custom gear shape."

Then I realized that it really did start out as a round chain gear, and modified that reaction to "WOW!!!" Lessons learned: 1 - even more respect for the F-P motors. 2 - gotta go double-check strength calculations for lightening gears. 3 - elliptical gears could be very useful; something to remember for next year.

-dave