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Down wind faster than the wind

I think it's highly likely that Bauer's original vehicle used this method.

First we should mention we were hoping Terry would volunteer to test the first ride-on cart : ) He seems like a sport.

Secondly, we found today that Bauer's big cart wanted to rattle itself apart because of instability in the chain drive and unbalanced propeller. Apparently it only just barely beat the wind. This is more in line with accounts I've read before regarding the uncertainty of whether he did in fact beat the wind.

He then built a small scale cart which performed quite well.

Talking to his wife, friends, and colleagues is a real hoot. And they seem to love talking about it. Best of all, the arguments were exactly the same back then - just no interenet to facilitate them.
 
First we should mention we were hoping Terry would volunteer to test the first ride-on cart : ) He seems like a sport.

Terry would be honoured.

Seriously, I'm still convinced that the ride-on version will be very hard to control if there isn't some sort of variable gearing to make it possible to run at slow constant speeds as well as speeds faster than the wind.
 
A piece of cloth is adequate to show the critical fact of whether the cart is traveling faster or slower than the wind that can be seen directly in the video if you can believe your own eyes.
Clearly, I am not up to date with sock technology. If a cart is moving downwind at 1m/s in a 2m/s wind, and then slows, which way does the sock go? Wouldn't they respond to differential pressures?

It is certainly possible to use momentum to gain an increase in average velocity at the expense of acceleration.
If the wind falls for a period, as variable winds do, then the average velocity of the vehicle may be higher relative to that slower period, yet not above the 'measured' average windspeed itself.
The sock will reliably indicate greater-than- windspeed for the same period. A period of higher than average wind, followed by lower than average wind, will make it all the more obvious. The sock is at best an indicator of differential velocity, but not velocity relative to the ground.
 
Brain_M,
Real wind is a real problem. Difficult to measure. If the wind is steady enough, then I would think bubbles would be OK. In a controlled airflow, yes, but direct measurement would probably be easier.
I was thinking of bubbles for outdoor locations because the exact speed may vary from place to place, and height off the ground. As bubbles travel at wind speed, and have a low enough mass to respond almost instantly to variations in wind speed, they would seem to be a good option.

I know the cart is tethered as you say. There is a second reactive path for the wheels and propeller. Two force return paths would be a problem. Not so much of a problem for the air driven case, I think.
Possibly instead of a tether, the wheels could just be adjusted so it travels in a circular path. Placed the right distance from the centre of the turntable, it should be able to circle indefinetly without a tether. (Placed at the wrong distance, it's distance from the centre would vary.)
 
Thinking it over, I realize that my earlier statement that my cart would work without the wheels was wrong. Anyway, I've also realized that I can make my cart simpler (by removing the chain and getting rid of a cog) and easier to understand. Here's the updated version...

26573493a4ec834504.gif


My drawings are another way of looking at the gears, to show that if I am consistent in my thinking of the ratios, I will arrive at 1:1 ratio for V:F. I have a better idea in mind, but have not had the time to post it. If that fails, you win.


Actually, a better way of looking at gears is as if they were levers. The axle acts as the fulcrum. The distance from the axle is the length of that end of the lever. Since the cogs have a shorter distance from the axle than the wheels, they act like the short end of the lever.

Here's what looking at the new cart's wheels as levers looks like...

26573493a5038e7a04.gif


ETA: Notice, the top wheel isn't doing anything except changing the direction.
 
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If you gave the cart say, a 5 mph headwind while it is rolling on the treadmill, you are creating the same situation as the cart exceeding it's tailwind by 5 mph on the road. If it could continue for an appreciable length of time, it would prove the cart could go faster than it's tailwind.

Not really. If the cart was going into a 5 mph headwind on the road (ie. 5 mph faster than the wind), then the wheels would be turning 5 mph faster than the wind.

By giving it a 5 mph headwind with a fan on the treadmill, you don't get the increase in wheel speed. As the propeller is driven by the wheels, this means the propeller won't be spinning fast enough to push the cart against the wind, or even fast enough to hold it in place.


Relative to the treadmill, the wheel speed is 5 mph faster than the wind; relative to the road, the wheel speed is 5 mph faster than the wind. So where's the difference?
 
Sort of. One of the equations of motion is that the total energy is conserved - i.e. it doesn't change with time. But that doesn't tell you what its value is, of course. When you boost, you change the value of the total energy, but in any frame it's conserved.

Right: energy is relative. Technically speaking it's the time component of a 4-vector, which means it isn't invariant under coordinate transformations like boosts.
Right, I think that's starting to get clearer to me. Thanks again.

Windspeed for the cart is said to occur when there is no differential velocity between the cart and the wind. The other definition is that the cart is traveling at the same velocity as the measured velocity of the wind.
Humber, I really think you should consider ducking out now, before you dig any deeper hole for yourself. Either you understand that the two above definitions are exactly the same, and are pretending not to, or you don't. Either way, you're not in a position to argue with people who don't deny it.

As long as the second definition is met, then I am not concerned about the other.
Since they are the same, if one is met, the other is. The only possible suggestion of difference is again from your insistence on measuring velocities from your earthbound bias, and, although they are still exactly the same definitions, the phrase "the same measured velocity" could be used to imply that only a non-zero value could be measured. The equivalence of frames of reference (boosts or whatever) has been explained time and time again and either you deny it or do not understand it, which would explain the above mistake.

I must have forgotten to click to mutli-quote your original point about the "bias" of the prop, but here again is a demonstration either of a lack of understanding of the basics of how a few gears work, or a troll's pretense of same. The CW or CCW turning of the prop is not in itself significant, only how it pushes the air - forwards or rearwards. If you like, you could take the gear connection at the wheel-propshaft and make that of the opposite sense, by, for instance putting the gearwheel turning with the vehicle's wheel on the other side of the wheel. This would change the push of the prop by changing it's rotation. However, if you used a prop with the opposite twist (pardon me, this won't be the tech term) - so it has a pitch of the opposte sense or sign (you can't turn it round on the shaft, it has to be a different prop or one of variable shift), then these two opposite changes (gear and pitch) will cancel each other out. You would now have a prop that turns the other way, but still pushes air backwards, in the case under discussion. Again, not understanding these basic points is reason to quit while you're not out of pocket.

As mender explained wrt the test, the significant bit is just:
<snip>and pitched so as to move air front to rear relative to the prop?

Further demonstration of your failure to understand comes with your response:
Yes, that is the same as the other videos. When driven by the belt, the propeller rotates CW, when viewed from the rear. Perhaps I can put it another way. If the wheels are driven CW as on the belt, in which direction is the thrust generated, and is that more or less than the thrust when the wheels are driven CCW?
It is fine to describe clock rotations of the prop wrt "looking from the rear", but then you try to describe wheel rotations, without mentioning which side of the machine you are looking at, which is meaningless.

Just had this brief conversation with my son . . .

Son - “So you’re going to spend time and money building this thing that you’re fairly sure won’t work?”

Me - “Yes”

Son - “And even if it does work it doesn’t have any practicle use?”

Me - “Yes”

Son - “ Are you sure you’re my father?”

Me - “Ask your mother.”
I'm surprised. I thought you'd shifted to those who believed it works. I certainly have. Well, I was at 99% sure, and it's going up from there.

Yes, I agree. I said 'wind' , on the understanding that we were looking for an indoor solution, so 'airflow' is perhaps the term I should have used.
The treadmill can only provide wheel drive, so I am wondering, how?
You will continue to wonder how until the penny drops regarding boosts and relative motion, if it ever does, or, if it already really has, when you stop trolling.

Thinking it over, I realize that my earlier statement that my cart would work without the wheels was wrong. Anyway, I've also realized that I can make my cart simpler (by removing the chain and getting rid of a cog) and easier to understand. Here's the updated version...

26573493a4ec834504.gif





Actually, a better way of looking at gears is as if they were levers. The axle acts as the fulcrum. The distance from the axle is the length of that end of the lever. Since the cogs have a shorter distance from the axle than the wheels, they act like the short end of the lever.

Here's what looking at the new cart's wheels as levers looks like...

26573493a5038e7a04.gif


ETA: Notice, the top wheel isn't doing anything except changing the direction.
I've had difficulty with these, Brian, because of the conveyor belt's direction of travel, which appears to oppose the direction of the side of the upper wheel it is in contact with. I imagine this is my failure to understand the diagram. It seems there's something odd going on here. I can imagine dropping the belt so that it turns the bottom of the wheel, or the top of the inner wheel of the set below, but then it changes the sense as related to how a wheel with flopping vanes would be pushed by the air faster than the air (sorry, forgotten who posted that now - which I stupidly criticised wrongly - the one next to a man). In that design, it was the fact that the vanes were propelled by the wind below the axel that meant they moved slower than the wheel rim, and allowed DDFTTW.

I think this problem may be something to do with your diagram showing a part of the effect or something, but I can't quite work it out. I wonder if it's because your diagram relates the workings of one part of the system.

Actually, for those interested in investigations of the cart's workings by practical testing, that flopping-vane design might be useful with two wheels, or a four-wheel cart arrangement. It could even be placed in a steady stream of water in a suitable ditch (sinking well below the surface) because the flow might be more obviously linear and the direction unchanging, unlike the outdoor wind, and because long ditches aren't so hard to find as long pipes of air - it should then be shown to travel faster than the water in the ditch. Just a thought.

Another - everyone's concerned about all the eddies in natural winds. I just wondered if there's anywhere (easy to reach) where winds are known to blow without such disturbances?
 
Clearly, I am not up to date with sock technology. If a cart is moving downwind at 1m/s in a 2m/s wind, and then slows, which way does the sock go? Wouldn't they respond to differential pressures?

Let's state this more clearly then: In a frame of reference relative to the ground, if a cart is moving left to right at 1 m/s and the wind is moving left to right at 2 m/s, I ascertain that the free end of the sock will hang to the right of the end of the sock anchored to a mast on the cart. This indicates that the cart is not traveling faster than the wind speed.

Do you agree?


If the cart then slows to less than 1 m/s the cart is still not traveling faster than the wind and the sock will continue to hang to the right.



It is certainly possible to use momentum to gain an increase in average velocity at the expense of acceleration.

Are you certain about this? The momentum of the cart (both linear momentum and angular momentum of it's moving parts) is directly proportional to its velocity over the ground because of the fixed gearing (and invariant mass).


If the wind falls for a period, as variable winds do, then the average velocity of the vehicle may be higher relative to that slower period, yet not above the 'measured' average windspeed itself.

The sock will reliably indicate greater-than- windspeed for the same period.


During this period of a lull in the wind while the cart has a momentum and velocity gained by the earlier stronger wind, that the cart is moving faster than the current wind speed as indicated by the wind sock, is it possible for the cart to gain additional momentum and velocity?
 
I've had difficulty with these, Brian, because of the conveyor belt's direction of travel, which appears to oppose the direction of the side of the upper wheel it is in contact with.

The confusion come from that fact that we don't see the cart advancing in Brian's diagram. In fact the the wheel does indeed turn against the conveyor belt in the direction indicated: the whole point is that the cart is moving to the right faster than the conveyor belt. Imagine the cart advancing to the right, "working its way" along the conveyor belt so that it is out-pacing it.

If you can get your hands on some sort of construction kit with different sized gearwheels, I recommend actually making a cart like this. If you actually see it working, it's much easier to grasp how the parts are moving relative to one another. I'd do it myself if I still had my old Meccano or Lego sets.
 
Not really. If the cart was going into a 5 mph headwind on the road (ie. 5 mph faster than the wind), then the wheels would be turning 5 mph faster than the wind.

By giving it a 5 mph headwind with a fan on the treadmill, you don't get the increase in wheel speed. As the propeller is driven by the wheels, this means the propeller won't be spinning fast enough to push the cart against the wind, or even fast enough to hold it in place.

You're right, I hadn't thought of that. Where is a mile long treadmill when you need one.
 
That's fun with the unconvinced people, especially humber.

Obviously here is some sort of confirmation bias at work, just in the opposite direction. Let's call it denial bias. It's really fun to see that we skeptics complain about confirmation bias, and then see a skeptic doing the very same thing just in opposite direction. Add to that the twisting of facts, cherry picking things, etc.

It shows quite well that people should be careful about their supposed understanding of things. Even if one learned a hell lot of things, there still is room for failure in comprehension. Some people are just too fast with their judgements.

Just my 2 cents.

Chris
 
That's fun with the unconvinced people, especially humber.

Obviously here is some sort of confirmation bias at work, just in the opposite direction. Let's call it denial bias. It's really fun to see that we skeptics complain about confirmation bias, and then see a skeptic doing the very same thing just in opposite direction. Add to that the twisting of facts, cherry picking things, etc.

It shows quite well that people should be careful about their supposed understanding of things. Even if one learned a hell lot of things, there still is room for failure in comprehension. Some people are just too fast with their judgements.

Just my 2 cents.

Chris

Have you built such a cart?

The wheels spin the prop that pushes the cart that makes the wheels turn.
 
Have you built such a cart?

Why should i? There is plenty material on the net that shows these carts in action.

The wheels spin the prop that pushes the cart that makes the wheels turn.

And have you actually read how this is supposed to work, and where this thing draws it's energy from? Obviously not. And no, i'm not repeating what so many have written as to how it works. You could easily read that yourself.

Oh, and just in case:
http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2008/12/windpowered_perpetual_motion.php

Read what Mark added at the very top of that Blog post yesterday.

When will you start to think about it, and stop falling into auto-denial mode because you cant grasp the concept of this thing?

Greetings,

Chris
 
Why should i? There is plenty material on the net that shows these carts in action.



And have you actually read how this is supposed to work, and where this thing draws it's energy from? Obviously not. And no, i'm not repeating what so many have written as to how it works. You could easily read that yourself.

Oh, and just in case:
http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2008/12/windpowered_perpetual_motion.php

Read what Mark added at the very top of that Blog post yesterday.

When will you start to think about it, and stop falling into auto-denial mode because you cant grasp the concept of this thing?

Greetings,

Chris

When it works. Mine doesn't. Just sets there as the wind tries to turn the propeller one way and the wheels try to turn it the other.
 
Windspeed for the cart is said to occur when there is no differential velocity between the cart and the wind. The other definition is that the cart is traveling at the same velocity as the measured velocity of the wind.
No, John, The "velocities" are only the same is a very limited sense. Cart/wind velocity is local, wheres as the wind may be measured elsewhere. Measurement is critical. Inferring the speed from the relative velocities of cart and wind is not acceptable. I can make a faster cart if I can redirect the local airflow and measure it there. Hey, twice WS!

On Monday I find I have no money in my wallet.
On Friday I find have no money in my wallet.
By looking at my wallet can I tell which of those days it is?
It could be that I do have money on the days between, with large transactions either way, or no money, any day. The velocity must not be inferred. So, clearly John, I think the cart/wind zero velocity idea to be unreliable. I would exclude it, but others hold it in value, so my remark was a compromise.

I know that CW prop = CW wheels. If that means nothing to you, then you do not understand the treadmill argument at all. I do not value the treadmill. Dan O does, and wants to use it. I do not. I had idea how treadmill may be used to the satisfaction of both sides. Information gained denies the idea, but perhaps I was thinking of something else. Perhaps you can tell me what that was.

On the treadmill, the amount of work done by the motor, is essentially the amount of energy dissipated by the propeller. Rotation does not affect that load, but the direction of the thrust. By your own reasoning you now understand why the treadmill is not what is claimed.
Also, on the real cart, CCW causes the wheels to move CCW, halting its forward progress. That you do not see the potential in that asymmetry, reflects badly upon your criticism.

Yes, earthbound bias. Ask JREF if they are prepared to accept "Pixieview". A cart can move relative to the wind and ground and not be at windspeed. If a cart makes it upwind. What is the windspeed w.r.t cart? If it slips just a little backwards, then that is like going downwind at windspeed, so it must be zero? You can ask yourself how the speeds are defined in this case. Paradoxical, at times.

In 4-vector space conservation holds, as do Newton's laws. What is the integral of the "boots" over, say, 10 propeller turns?


.
 
When it works. Mine doesn't. Just sets there as the wind tries to turn the propeller one way and the wheels try to turn it the other.

You are so close. Either you have too much friction and the wind just isn't strong enough or you have found the balance point where the forces to move the cart forward and backward are exactly equal. You need only change the propeller pitch or the gearing to make a downwind faster that the wind cart or an upwind crawler.
 
tsig:
>When it works. Mine doesn't.

There are lots of ways to make one that doesn't work.

Post up some pics and basic details and those of us who do make them work will be happy to offer suggestions.

JB
 

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