dooger watts wrote,
>Remember hearing about a kat--think he was in So Cal, who built a
>flywheel car, back in the seventies. Had a wonderfully heavy flywheel
>that took over an hour to get wound up to speed--but then it seems like
>it gave the car a range of nearly a hundred miles.
>
>Can't remember if it was mounted parallel or perpendicular to the
>ground--but I know there were gyroscopic issues with the first design.
>Made the car incredibly stable--but it didn't want to go around corners.
Probably perpendicular...I don't think a flywheel parallel to the ground
would offer much resistance to going around corners.
If the flywheel's axis was parallel to the car's axles, then turning
probably made the car feel like it was trying to flip over on its side.
If the axis pointed front-to-rear, then turning would make the car feel
like it was trying to dig into the ground or take off into the air,
depending on the direction of the turn.
Ahh, conservation of angular momentum. What fun...
- Neil Parker
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