Randall,

Your illustration is most informative, but the details of the pivot/axis are 
unclear.  How are the magnets oriented with respect to the blade and what 
purpose do they serve?

Les

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randall Peters" 
To: 
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 11:40 AM
Subject: possible vertical using magnets?


> Kay,
>    We know how you feel, but here's one more  'drinnk from the firehose'. 
> We're 'on a roll', looks like.
> Meredith, like yourself, I saw the need to somehow communicate pictures; 
> so I've placed one on my webpage at:
> http://physics.mercer.edu/hpage/psn/vertical-using-magnets.gif
>
> Anybody know instinctively if it's fatally flawed?  I know Chris you don't 
> like 'knife edges'.  Maybe they're not as bad with load reduction by the 
> pulling shown here.  What about your thoughts, Charles, since I like your 
> idea?
>
> And Keith, we're not opposed at all to what you've mentioned.  I wrote a 
> paper on the pendulum that moves in a way you'd like.  Check out the pages 
> that result if you type 'rattle in Seattle' into Google.  I wouldn't be 
> surprised if my
> 1988 paper "Chaotic motion from support constraints of a nondriven rigid 
> spherical pendulum", Phys. Rev. A 38, 5352
> prompted the commercial development that resulted in the 'oak and brass' 
> pendulum that writes in sand and which recorded that Seattle earthquake.
>
> Randall
>
> 


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