Tom,
Not to go "Physics Teacher" on, but you asked, so here goes. The
formula for computing the force of gravity between two objects is a
constant times the first mass times the second mass divided the
distance separating the centers of mass squared. (Not being able to
type formulas is a real pain!) So it's not as easy as dividing the
force of gravity by 64. I'll give this some more study.
Scale speed is very possible. You are correct that time does not
scale, but distance does. Take your scale distance and divide it by
your non scaled elapsed time, and you get scale speed. I am of the
opinion that scale speed often looks too slow, but there could be other
factors involved.
On Apr 18, 2005, at 10:08 AM, Thomas Stoltz wrote:
>
> Hi Scalers,
>
> This is one of those things I like to ponder. I might be wrong, but I
> believe there are two things we can not scale correctly.
>
> Gravity, can not be scaled and therefore, a scale weight for a given
> piece of rolling stock can not be determined. Perhaps there is a way
> though. If you could design a chamber where you could control the
> force of gravity and set it for 1/64th the gravitational pull of our
> "normal" gravity, then you could make the car weight its 1/64th scale
> weight. Then return the car to "normal" gravity and weight it...
>
> Actually, I'm sure there is a way to do it with numbers. The moon has
> less gravitational pull than the earth and I know there is a way to
> calculate the weight of what something would weigh on the moon. We
> should be able to calculate the weights of objects on a moon with
> 1/64th the gravity of earth.
>
> Time is the other factor that can not be scaled. Hence, we can not
> scale the speed of our trains, we can only go by what looks right to
> the eye.
>
> If we assume a scale ratio of 1/60th rather than 1/64th for the
> purpose of illustration, a minute becomes a second. 30 miles per hour
> is 1 mile every 2 minutes. Your train would have to traverse a scale
> mile (82.5 ft) in 2 seconds to be running at a "scale" 30 MPH. Using
> this logic, toy train speeds are mind numbingly slow!
>
> As I said, I might be wrong, but I find it fun to think about.
>
> Tom Stoltz
>
> Tom's Turnouts and Trackwork
> Maine S Gaugers
> NASG
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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