A2-spoke dumbbells unstable? Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: A2-spoke dumbbells unstable?
# 13375 bymikecombs@... on Aug. 28, 2014, 1:37 p.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
> P.S. High Frontier version 0.06 came out today!
Interestingly, 3-spoked dumbbells seem just fine. Is it like the rule for a stool: 3 legs is the minimum number for stability?
Why should 2-spoke dumbbells be a problem? If true, this would be a different issue from the long/short axis issue you've been mentioning. My first one wound up spinning rapidly on its longest axis.
Disappointingly, I was not able to eliminate the stability problem with 2 counter-rotating dumbbells of equal mass. Shouldn't that have a net 0 angular momentum? The only arrangement of that type I could produce which did not pitch about spasmodically had another, long, non-rotating structure on it which I assume made the difference.
Regards,
Mike Combs
>
P.S. High Frontier version 0.06 came out today!
And speaking of which, I'm getting lots of entertainment from spectacular fails due to the new factoring-in of spin instability in the simulations. One thing I seem to have found is that 2-spoke dumbbells are spectacularly unstable. The first and simplest one I did began quickly spinning on the wrong axis. I've also gotten much more chaotic results.
Interestingly, 3-spoked dumbbells seem just fine. Is it like the rule for a stool: 3 legs is the minimum number for stability?
Why should 2-spoke dumbbells be a problem? If true, this would be a different issue from the long/short axis issue you've been mentioning. My first one wound up spinning rapidly on its longest axis.
Disappointingly, I was not able to eliminate the stability problem with 2 counter-rotating dumbbells of equal mass. Shouldn't that have a net 0 angular momentum? The only arrangement of that type I could produce which did not pitch about spasmodically had another, long, non-rotating structure on it which I assume made the difference.
Regards,
Mike Combs