Saturday, January 14, 2017

anti-gravity wheel explained

https://youtu.be/GeyDf4ooPdo
https://youtu.be/tLMpdBjA2SU

Background observation and thoughts
There is obviously something very interesting in this demonstration. The 2nd video in no way is adequate to explain what this video shows. He held it out early in the video in a way that is impossible with a non-spinning 40 pound weight. I can easily lift this much compared to him (it's my workout dumbbell) and there's no way I can hold it out half way out to arm's length like he did at exactly 1:06 and part of 1:07 (i just tried it...no way). Also look at 3:30 to 3:34 where his arm is more extended. That's extremely difficult if it were a static weight. The way he did the static weight at 1:54 is easier and yet it looked a lot more difficult. His arm was least tired when he lifted it static. It should have been getting harder each time, but it was getting easier as he intuitively learned to take advantage of whatever effect is going on. I think I know what's happening. They do not explain in the 2nd video how it can feel so much lighter. The little push at the beginning seems to store energy to help overcome the increase in potential energy required to do the lift. But if that energy was indeed used to help, the lifting energy should have been reduced (somehow) by it and therefore the upward force*distance by his arm must have been less by that amount. But I am not refreshed on dynamics enough to know if the vertical forces can be made equal and opposite while permitting the downward force on  his hand to be less. They only say "it only feels lighter because you give it a little push at the beginning but it's not lighter". But my thinking is that any excess push at the beginning does not help other than to get it going stably and if there is an excess then the wheel will try to twist upward which might place greater downward force on his hand if it tries to raise it at the same time to keep the bar horizontal. There could be a slight upward twist at the bottom and slight downward at the top which might help something but again I would need to do the dynamics to know.  I just suspect it's not helping.. If the downward force*distance is not decreased and the little push at the beginning is not really helping anything other than to get it going, I think the solution to the enigma is this:

Solution
 The angular momentum is changed in one direction by pushing on the bar sideways and this increases the downward force against the locked "upward" muscles, like the push at the beginning. I've confirm this part by experiment and have a video. The center of gravity of the wheel rises as it twists slightly upward. Then the applied side-torque by the hand is released which allows the hand to rise to the center of gravity of the wheel with less force than the weight of the wheel as the angular momentum change is reversed, so the wheel is vertical again. Then the 2 steps repeat, as fast as muscles can twitch, following the path of least resistance. It is a lot easier to lock a muscle against a weight than it is to contract the position more. So briefly increasing weight in the first step will not overcome the locked position. They show the extent of the downward force changes in the 2nd video which shows what I've describe could be a large effect. The push at the beginning could be the other half of the effect, and by not letting it twist upward as in my first step, the energy is stored for extraction throughout the lift, if the lift is done smoothly.