Is it bad that Calvin and Hobbes just blew my mind?

[cgannon64]

Ahem.

"Playing a record? I'll show you something interesting. Compare a point on the label with a point on the outer edge. They both make a complete circle in the same amount of time, right?

"Yeah..."

"But the point on the record's edge has to make a bigger circle in teh same time, so it goes faster. See, two points on one disk move at two speeds, even though they both make the same revolutions per minute!"

*Picture of Calvin lying awake in bed.*

How is this possible? And am I stupid for being amazed by this?

EDIT: Multiple choice, argh! OK, if I put Show Voters option on like I tried too, I'm going to scold whoever votes for more than one.'

EDIT 2: Voted the wrong option. Damn this poll is off to a bad start.

 

[WillJ]

Uh, if two things move at two different speeds and make two differently sized revolutions, the speeds being proportional to the distances of the revolutions, of course they have the same revolutions per minute.

Damn, you're stupid.

 

[MarineCorps]

Not quite sure what your saying... But I get the gist of it. I learned in mechanisms class that connecting a large gear to a small gear will amke the small one move faster. AS for RPM: I doubt that,

 

[Mescalhead]

Yep.

Seriously, some things we see in every day life simply don't concern us because we view it for a specific reason (records for music) and we don't analyze peripheral or incidental phenomenon.

 

[cgannon64]

No, I'm not amazed that they make the same revolutions per minute.

I'm amazed that one mechanism - the thing that spins the record - can make somethign spin at two different speeds. Actually, at an infinite number of speeds, since each point farther out moves marginally faster.

 

[WillJ]

No, I'm not amazed that they make the same revolutions per minute.

I'm amazed that one mechanism - the thing that spins the record - can make somethign spin at two different speeds. Actually, at an infinite number of speeds, since each point farther out moves marginally faster.

I guess I just don't find it amazing for some reason.

Just picture two planets orbiting around the sun, and for the sake of this analogy assume that the planets are lined up and stay lined up. Picture them orbiting. Then draw a line between them, and picture the line moving; the inside of the line is moving more slowly than the outside. Nothing really unusual about that IMO.

 

[Gogf]

Yes. It's the same principle that the outside of large gear moves faster than that of a small one: if has more distance to travel in the same time. RPMs have a different fixed difference on the inside and outside, but they still need to go that distance X times in one minute. Therefore, the outside must move faster. Make sense?

 

[nihilistic]

Yeah, that's pretty obvious. Have you taken physics yet? Or any geometry?

 

[LordKestrel]

The fun thing about that, is that assuming you had enough energy to move something big enough, the end of that line would be moving infinitely fast. So much for not being able to go faster than light, just swing a long pole, and the end of it could be going far faster than the speed of light

 

[Azadre]

As the radius gets larger, so does the circumference, whice means more distance to travel in the same amount of time

 

[cgannon64]

I know its obvious when you think about it, but how can one force - say, an axle spinning a wheel, or the central thing turning a record - move something at two different speeds? Where does the extra force come from? (EDIT: It can't be momentum, can it?)

And I just finished Geometry this year, but we didn't cover any of this.

 

[WillJ]

The fun thing about that, is that assuming you had enough energy to move something big enough, the end of that line would be moving infinitely fast. So much for not being able to go faster than light, just swing a long pole, and the end of it could be going far faster than the speed of light

The problem is, where do you get an infinitely long pole?

 

[Azadre]

The problem is, where do you get an infinitely long pole?

heheh... I may know

 

[Azadre]

I know its obvious when you think about it, but how can one force - say, an axle spinning a wheel, or the central thing turning a record - move something at two different speeds? Where does the extra force come from? (EDIT: It can't be momentum, can it?)

And I just finished Geometry this year, but we didn't cover any of this.

Angular accleration.... it's just one of those laws in life.

 

[cgannon64]

Sorry, what is angular acceleration?

I think the answer to that solves all my amazement.

 

[Azadre]

Sorry, what is angular acceleration?

I think the answer to that solves all my amazement.

a=v^2/R it its rawest form

 

[cgannon64]

Ok dude that doesn't help at all.

I was thinking an explanation with words.

 

[Azadre]

The change in the instantaneous angular velocity divided by the time over which the change occurs

 

[cgannon64]

Hmm...

...

Nope, still nothing clicking.

I'm going to define it as: "The thing that makes the stuff spin at different speeds", how is that?

How about you define Angular Velocity?

 

[LordKestrel]

heheh... I may know

I was wondering how long it would take someone to say that