The Gravitic Motor Mathsy Page

Where we develop the mathematical theory of the Gravitic Motor. Very simple.

Note on page 3 the cancelling of g's. A Gravitic Motor would in theory work the same on Earth or in Mars, what is pretty cool. 

So, we've calculated with the passage how much does the floater move if we drop a height of water in the left column. We want it to move very little, since we want small displacements, so that means a ratio (A/a) that is small. That is, the horizontal tube is very thick, and the vertical one is thin. 

But there are more things at play. If we make the horizontal tube thick, the floater gets big and its mass increases, increasing friction. Also, if we make the vertical tube thin, that means we won't be able to use many drops of water without the level rising fast. That is in essence what autonomy means to the Gravitic Motor: how many times you can use it before you have to clear the water of the pipes. 

These trade-offs make problems very interesting in Engineering; we eventually need to make a design choice, compromise a bit, see what really matters to us.

The next section is all about a proposed experiment to test the fundamentals of the Gravitic Motor.

BANNER IMAGE CREDITS: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, R. Jansen 

Want to know more about this image? Follow this external link.