Friday, June 1, 2007

the start of Ferguson's mechanical paradox


I built this this morning. It is the stationary stud and the fixed "A-wheel" around which the rest of the orrery rotates. Imagine the silicon slab extended outward with a pinion, "M" and "thick wheel B", meshing with the sulfur atoms on this shaft. A little farther out on the slab will be wheels E, F, and G. I am still not sure how I will build three independent gears on the same axis, but I have a can-do attitude. I know I should be thinking really hard about that, but I can't stop the images of a complete orrery with buckyball planets from flashing through my mind.

The atom count has already exceeded 3,500.

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