On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 12:35 PM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sorry, folks, contrary to what someone wrote here, you can't > just use F=ma, the kinetic energy of a rotor depends on the mass > distribution of the rotor, but a low-friction supported bearing could > readily be calibrated so that one would know the stored energy from the > rotational velocity. Of course you can. I just didn't wish to bore people here with the details. The bearing energy would be assumed to be zero but will actually be included in the inertia as a constant drag when the measurement is done. And the absolute final velocity is not an issue. It is the change in velocity which determines acceleration and the subsequent force. One would have to calculate the radius of the center of mass for a non-homogenous rotating body. Since the body has quadilateral symmetry along the magnet axes, it's not a difficult task. I have a mechanical engineer on my staff. We'll give it a shot for a single plexiglass disc containing 4 magnets in quadrature. T
