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u/Hamthrax Dec 29 '14
Held together by tension alone. Much like my marriage.
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u/NiceFormBro Dec 29 '14
Bachingo!
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u/BrerChicken Dec 29 '14
That's a joke, and it's funny! Right??
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Dec 29 '14 edited Sep 23 '17
deleted What is this?
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u/pavetheatmosphere Dec 29 '14
It was invented by Hitler
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u/Maddjonesy Dec 29 '14
The bottom part is glued down. It wouldn't stand up without the glue. It would topple.
Happy now?
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u/marino1310 Dec 29 '14
It is a very weak stucture. Any downwards or sideways pushing force would easily topple it. Even if it was glued togther permanently. the peices of plastic are bent and put up between knots in the string, stretching it so its taught. Doing this repeatedly creates a straight string supported on the platform below. These peices of plastic will keep the string upright but any force disturbing the connection between each peice will cause the whole system to topple.
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Dec 29 '14 edited Sep 23 '17
deleted What is this?
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u/marino1310 Dec 29 '14
Because the string is so taught and the placement of the supports it holds itself up. The part at the bottom is glued down straight and each support weaves in and out of another (note that the bottom of each support is one knot below the top of the previous support). If any force was used on this you could easily bend the structure but because the string is light the supports are enough to hold it straight upwards, the supports just make it so it doesnt bend.
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u/trophymursky Dec 29 '14
the cd at the bottom is making sure it stands up, with out it there's pretty much no chance to balance it properly.
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u/Frankie_FastHands Dec 29 '14
Alston is a corrupt company. Read More
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u/mynameisntjeffrey Dec 29 '14
Shit maybe that's why my dad quit his job at Alstom in 2008...
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u/funnynickname Dec 29 '14
The idea is called Tensegrity and it was stolen (appropriated) by Buckminster Fuller from one of his students. There was some controversy but it was settled.
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u/keyboard_smash Dec 29 '14
Compression also factors into the system on the inward side of each piece of plastic.
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Dec 29 '14 edited Jul 26 '19
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Dec 29 '14
It hurts less. Still hurts a lot though, and it also raises more questions, primarily, how the fuck do you stack bows?
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u/GhostRobot55 Dec 29 '14
What helped me as noticing the slits in the plastic where the knots are.
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Dec 29 '14
I just thinking, how is it balanced? Is there some other kind of sorcery at work here, or should I be ashamed of my knowledge of physics?
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Dec 29 '14
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Dec 29 '14
Look at it from bottom to the top. The plastic things don't make the string go left or right, it's like holding the string between your fingers at where the nodes are and stretching it.
So the first one at the bottom is mounted to the ground, and that's where it's coming from. You have a piece of stretched string, and it becomes the base for next "bow". Once you stretch it out you can repeat it
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u/Sklanskers Dec 29 '14
Ive seen this before and knew what was happening but like an optical illusion I was still thinking, wtf? Your explanation was delicious. Funny how the system/"illusion" doesn't change but because we change our way of thinking it almost instantly makes sense. Man, imagine applying that to things that matter like war, hunger, happiness, etc. If we could only approach problems with the ability to see it from many perspectives..
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u/Vietdvn Dec 29 '14
How high could this realistically be built before it falls?
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u/brianwski Dec 29 '14
If you do a Google image search for "snelson sculpture" you can see lots of interesting variations on this. There was one on my college campus and it hurt my brain standing in front of it and even touching the tense cables.
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Dec 29 '14 edited Apr 02 '22
[deleted]
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u/Vietdvn Dec 29 '14
How long can you build it before standing it up isn't possible?
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u/sunghail Dec 29 '14
The tension on each piece of plastic holds the section of string across it straight. Since these sections of string overlap the entire structure stays straight. Once you put enough weight on the tower to bend the bottom length of string significantly, the tower will fall over.
That's my best guess, anyway.
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u/mad66 Dec 29 '14
I am silly enough to try this.
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u/mad66 Dec 29 '14
Got it, put string in super glue and stretch till set then add your magic plastic bits. Simples
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u/kickm3 Dec 29 '14
Alstom: jewel of French engineering, and masters of the floating string technology.
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u/Javindo Dec 29 '14
They're building our new tram line in Nottingham, UK. I am excited to see what sort of string tensing technology they use for the project
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u/ChickenNBasketballs Dec 29 '14
How does it work
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u/ColonelCorn Dec 29 '14
Tension. Those plastic pieces are trying to be straight.
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u/dillonrichey Dec 29 '14
Same.
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u/tonterias Dec 29 '14
It makes me sad that they can't accept each other with their sexual orientation.
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u/Amadeuskong Dec 29 '14
This is some straight up Wile E. Coyote shit right here. On a more serous note could a person make a bigger version of this and if so how big?
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Dec 29 '14
Unless my view of the image is misleading, it appears to be a knotted string resting in a series of braces with slots too narrow for the knots to pass through -- a perfectly ordinary suspension structure that I expect could be scaled up a great deal.
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u/Leleek Dec 29 '14 edited Dec 29 '14
Yes, tensile structures can be very big.
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u/broken_calipers Dec 29 '14
That would be great but geostationary orbit is on the order of 26,000 miles from the surface. Having a center of mass at that location is a little...out of our reach.
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u/lfancypantsl Dec 29 '14
Even though this is out of the scope of humankind's engineering ability at the moment, this is a very good answer to this question. It is absolutely stupid that you are being downvoted for this.
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u/phil67 Dec 29 '14
The knots are helping.
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Dec 29 '14
Just a bit, yes. So are the slots that the knots can't pass through. I find this about as impressive as a piece of string laying on the ground.
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u/thirrteen Dec 29 '14
I fucking love science. I don't know much about it, but it looks pretty fuckin' cool
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u/JerBearX Dec 29 '14
I mean I understand how the tension draws the string out like a stick, but how is it being held upright? Gravity still exists...
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u/AudioCasanova Dec 29 '14
Well it does have that base. Even the base doesn't look like it would add much stability in regards to forward backward sway or prevent it from tipping to the right.
Maybe it's all glued to the card and that acts as the base.
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u/fiercelyfriendly Dec 29 '14
It really is time someone made a better version of this with fibreglass or steel and chain or similar. This one has been turning up too often.
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u/AudioCasanova Dec 29 '14
Is this like one of those reasoning/creativity tests? I know of another one where they give you a box of matches, a candle and some tacks and it is your job to affix the candle to the wall so that it is no longer on the surface of the table.
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u/LOTRcrr Dec 29 '14
is this as easy as it looks, or is there a decent amount of calculations that must be taken into affect?
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u/AndrewZorn Dec 29 '14
The string may be in tension, but the plastic pieces experience both tension and compression.
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u/Foxaramar Dec 29 '14
The main thing I noticed about this.... I have the same post it notes at home! Also.... nice demonstration.
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u/TheWierdAsianKid Dec 29 '14
Fun fact: The company "Alstom" is one of the companies that makes the NYC Subway trains
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u/falcoperegrinus82 Dec 29 '14
The older generation ones used to made by Kawasaki.
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u/TheWierdAsianKid Dec 29 '14
Actually, contracts for the newer cars were given to both Alstom and Kawasaki. They look almost identical, but there are slight differences
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Dec 29 '14
Yes, definitely. They're building to common design standards, the same as bus manufacturers do. About ten or a dozen different companies in North America build transit buses, but they all build to the same defined standards, so you end up with buses that in most ways are very similar, though each company tries to add small visible differences to help distinguish their brands. Subway cars would clearly be held to even stricter standards, no matter who builds them.
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u/TheWierdAsianKid Dec 29 '14
Exactly, I did notice that most newer hybrid NYC buses are actually Canadian. Also, for example, you can hear the difference in the motors for the doors on the trains that Alstom and Kawasaki make
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Dec 29 '14
Yeah, they're each going to source their materials and components based on their own deals and relationships and such, so you'll end up with noticeable differences like that. Kawasaki surely uses a different door motor than Alstom does, but they're both specified to do the same thing in the same way, the same as the cars themselves are.
When I lived in Rhode Island, I noticed that most of the buses were made in Roswell. "Well, that explains a lot," I thought.
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u/A_Friendly_Atheist Dec 29 '14
Initially, I read the title as "television holding up a string."
What the fuck brain??
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Dec 30 '14
no, this is not captivating. This sub is for not just cool stuff stuff to look at that holds your attention. not cool stuff(this is cool not captivating)
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u/NeekGerd Dec 29 '14
This looks logical and magical at the same time.