Paper Mechanics: Impossible Gear

[samurayloco]

and your point is..???

[LuckyMarketGameplay]

Simple trick. Notice where he holds the spoke after giving it a few goes.. On the outer edge. Notice the placement of where the screwdriver would cross.. Inner edge. Outer edge of the spoke are tethered, inner edge not connected at all. Screwdriver is free to pass through until the spokes need replacement from being worn out.

[Snommelp]

Neat magic trick. Now, is it actually useful?

[reddog418]

Video response has the answer. I bet he can't do this same trick with the gear flipped upside down (screwdriver on bottom).

[Squarerig]

I have called Sherlock Holmes and await his reply with eagerness!

[seannz100]

could be using the shit camera to give the appearance of going all the way around?

[chibraxial]

Fake screwdriver (at least 2 parts)+ magnets

[xebek]

If you look at the exact center of the gear, it is below the "cowling" that covers the top portion of the gear, therefore the hole in the cowling is above the gear as it rotates and the screwdriver makes no contact what-so-ever. mmkay.

[yo6ial]

This is witchcraft!!! You should get ob the barbeque! :D

Nice gear, nice idea, nice crafting, crappy shooting.

Please improve video coding potions.

Cheers

[bronzeladdy53]

@colin: perhaps the spokes are only attached at the wheel

[anthony3leaves]

im in that confusing geeky part of youtube again

[huntpivot2]

It's simple. The gear is held in a track of sorts in the covered part. Each spoke is on a spring and can rotate backward, but catches a catch on the outer wheel when rotating forwards.

[vlax42]

pegs go down when view is upstructed

[nihilus0]

Cool

And tnx for eardrum penetrating "sound fx's"

(But really, cool gear)

[Gary190tube]

Whilst the turning wheel is circular, the outer casing is an oval shape (longer North-South than it is East-West).

You hold it to the camera so it's tilted with the top towards the viewer. This shortens it in the N-S axis and makes it look circular.

[destrierofdark]

I'd say they're designed to be able to divide through the middle, then pass the screwdriver and latch back together? And yes, using some form of pulling mechanism or object to get them back in place.

[williamthomasmi10]

Well for one it looks like the spokes won't even reach out to the screwdriver... or maybe just barely... but then I don't even know how that outer ring would spin through the screwdriver...

[williamthomasmi10]

@williamthomasmi10 Oh, well after watching the video response I was close to right.

[GamersPath]

If you made it it's possible ಠ_ಠ

[johny260]

actually its a magic trick. 

[blabby102]

Guys guys, you are all so dumb. It is obvious how it works....magnets!

[boxpilot]

why did you bang the screwdriver so loudly

[ArkadiusProductions]

I love reading all the comments. Pretty funny stuff.

I'm betting on the upper spokes retracting into the oversized hub when nearing the top. No clue on the exact engineering of it though, perhaps spring loaded pins running over a cam lobe.

[brokeboy18]

You never see the back of the "impossible" gear until after he has already "inserted" the screw driver through the plates. What is happening is that the screw driver itself is collapsable where the metal shaft gets pushed back into the handle and is held in place by magnets while there is a fake shaft of the screwdriver attached to the back of the plate ahead of time. This means that there is never anything obstructing the path of the gear and the spokes are just a distracter.

[guineapiggyman]

@brokeboy18 way off

[walikai]

@brokeboy18 LOL

[YamahaBoyTTR230]

The axis that it spins on is not in the center, and the spokes move in the outer ring due to that.

[Crashboy1024]

It's an illusion. The spoked wheel is circular (it has to be), but the cover is not. The hole through which the screwdriver goes through is a bit farther from the center than the radius of the spoked wheel.

[n9athan]

@Crashboy1024 that or he never fully rotated the gear and the spokes just make it seem like he did

[kd0afk]

The spokes aren't supporting the outer wheel. There are holes in the outer wheel that the spokes into but they are free to move.

[kd0afk]

The spokes and the outer ring are connected via a gear in the back. The spoke wheel is of a smaller diameter and the centers of both wheels are offset. The difference between the two centers is probably the width of that screwdriver. Did I nail it?

[kd0afk]

This is fucked up

[sonyhotdogs]

I would like to think that the three spokes we see are the only spokes there are on the gear; that is, he only rotated it one half rotation for each visible spoke.

[tiger12220]

Uhm, I shot in the dark. Is it that the spokes are moveable, and you have an elevated slope in the top that pushes them father into the central part of the gear, which also has an elevated slope that pushes the spoke back into place as it nears exit from the hidden area?

[zzizioziom]

easy



[caseygtr]

The video response explains it...

[MotoScootMech]

with enough time and enough money, anyone can do anything. good job, but really.............  really?

[jonamuk7]

Douche bag.

[88SANCHEZ88]

no actually because really he hasn't made the impossible gear he has only built a structure that resemble the impossible gear

[coasterfrk20788]

The title of this video is a lie. If the title says impossible gear, than by definition of the word impossible the gear cannot be made. But you did make it, so the gear is possible.

[mikethebike7]

I never saw that gear go through a full revolution,. he seems to turn it only about 270 degrees- but the video makes it impossible to actually be certain. Also, those spokes could easily have at least one or more trick spokes which could allow the steel rod of the screwdrive to pass through. It is easy to create illusions with a camera between the subject and the audience.

[GilHeron]

Lol, was writing the answer and then saw the posted vid. ;D glad to know I guessed correctly

[MrKaddan]

The spokes are not fixed, they probably made so that they can bend. When a spoke hit the screwdriver, it bends and lets the wheel rotate further... When past the screwdriver, it just bends back and supports the outer ring once again...

[hepcecob]

@MrKaddan This is paper, if it bends out of the way, it wont have a spring effect and come right back to the original position. Even then, how would it support the ring if it's free to move?

[MrKaddan]

@hepcecob Because of that it's not 100% paper

[Chimb111222]

@hepcecob Not to mention at one point you are using the spokes to turn it.

[NovaLand]

@hepcecob Who said it needs support with spokes?

[88SANCHEZ88]

black magic (makumba!)

[mikerockwell1975]

Okay, I figured it out. Your spokes are not full-length. As you turn it, two spokes are always in place. As each spoke enters the "cage", it slides into the opposite-side (visible) hole. Am I right? What do I win?

:-)

[jlumley]

he does not turn it a full 180%

[DemonFIare]

@jlumley 360* 180 is 1/2 and he does that more than once

[DemonFIare]

@jlumley 360* 180 is 1/2 and he does that more than once.

[globefish23]

Oh, no! It's Maxwell's demon!

He's had enough with his door and is now in the gear business.

[ColinRyleyMurphy]

it is merley slotted into the top hemisphere of the paper and the spokes really serve no purpose.

[hepcecob]

@ColinRyleyMurphy if so, then how are the spokes staying in place, especially since they're used to transfer the force from the spokes to the 2 halves?

[HNickProg]

@hepcecob maybe some weak magnets in the spokes and iron in the outer ring?

[TheMrBlinx]

May you be plagued by thousands of paper cuts till you reveal the secret!

[jrox5150]

it's black magic! :O

[TimmyTimmy619]

your a complete douche

[hepcecob]

@TimmyTimmy619 you're* FTFY

[bonghaven]

sickkkkk, very nicely done

[ICU2P]

When you were spinning the wheel (without the screwdriver) I noticed the struts don't pass the hole....

[eyeammi]

simple. What you can't see is that the ends of the spokes nearest to the center travel in an off center track whose center is positioned lower that the gear's center of rotation. This pushes and pulls the spokes out at the bottom and back in, opening up a gap for the screwdriver, when the spoke is at the top of the device. The gear itself probably rides on a semicircular sliding surface just above the hole for the screwdriver.

[rcmotorsect]

you have a gear inside that pulles the struts(witch only go through half of the wheel) in so they can pass thrugh the center and rejoun into view on the other side of the wheel where they keep the wheel stable, this is very complicated and a cool project, stumped alot of people...

[hepcecob]

@rcmotorsect There are 4 struts (or going by your solution only 2 long struts. If there were only 2 long struts, how can you have 1 of the struts connecting all the way from left to right when the next strut is in the south position?

[rcmotorsect]

@hepcecob no, 2 short struts, that go through the hub and out to the other side

[beagleboyjones]

this kid is using bots, i know he is

[DisabledCreation]

HAAAAAAAXXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[natethegreatBlitzMax]

well if you look closely you see that there is one spoke that doesnt go 'through' the screw driver. This is the spoke he holds it by for part of it. the others simply arent attatched and are pushed out of the way ;) simple

[hepcecob]

@natethegreatBlitzMax wow, I just noticed that in the video. All 4 spokes are exactly the same. Even if it was connected only through that 1 spoke, this IS paper we're talking about, it would not spin so easiy, the spoke would actually rip off. Good observation though, in all the time that this has been up I've never noticed that it doesn't make a full 360/

[natethegreatBlitzMax]

@hepcecob ah, I guess paper would not be that strong ...I can still think of different ways to make it, the challenge is making it in paper which you did an excelent job of by the way.

[QuaziGNRLNose]

fake struts are fake

[hepcecob]

@QuaziGNRLNose Reddit/Digg/4chan ?

[tasdawg]

Like you cant see that the center does not move, and you have straws attached to the bottom, pft, homo!

[lordofwafflez]

the spokes simply slide back into the central cylinder, no?

[chungdha]

The gear is build up in in pieces it collaps inside the hidden part in the lower middel of the gear you see an edge where it get folded.

[thybigballs]

Enough already!!! I want the solution to how it works :)

[hepcecob]

@thybigballs oh my bad, I will more than likely never post the actual solution. All I will say is that it's not an illusion made by the camera or anything like that. It's the same exact effect whether or not you saw it on youtube of in real life. Unfortunately the thing got destroyed. At one point I was working on the 2nd version of this, but gave it up for some time since it required a LOT of time to finish.

[thybigballs]

when will get the solution?

[thybigballs]

when will we get the solution?

[johngomm]

Question: Would this work equally well upside down?

I'm suspecting a gravity mechanism.

Nice work.

[hepcecob]

@johngomm it'll work upside down

[plzforgiveme987]

lmfaoo duhh that thing that connects from the gears to the center is hiting the screw driver thats y it aint goin no where

[simonsimon405]

if: the screwdriver in inside the gear rim

The rim (gear pattern) in not fixed with the spokes. Each spokes can move in and out. Each spokes are connected to a fixed path behind the cover (a kind of cam-follower system). So when the spoke enter the hidden zone, it start to retract until it come at 12o'clock then start to go back, seated in the rim. The system is symetrical so it can go forward and backward.

did I get it??:P

[DracoRincewind]

Each spoke is attached 2 a small gear. This can b done with ether a piston or scotch yoke. As the small gear turns it pulls the spoke down and returns it back 2 its original position with each rotation. The 4 small gears the spokes r attached 2 r placed inside a larger gear with the teeth on the inside. But there is only a few teeth at the top while the rest is smooth. So the spoke gears will only make 1 rotation when it reaches the top, pulling the spoke down and avoiding the screwdriver.

[hepcecob]

with your design you would need to have gear teeth on the top and the bottom surrounding the small gears. The problem with that is that the teeth below the small gear would would be in form of a circle with a very small perimeter thus. With such a small perimeter it will take, at best, half a turn just to have the spokes return to their position.

[DracoRincewind]

@hepcecob I am not seeing why I would need teeth under the small gear. It seems unnecessary. Perhaps I did not explain my design well.

[hepcecob]

if the gear spins one way for the spoke to go in, wouldn't it have to go the opposite way for it to go back out?

[DracoRincewind]

@hepcecob I apparently didn't explain well in my first post. The answer to your question is no. With a "Piston" or "Scotch Yoke" you do not need to reverse the gear to push the spoke back up to its original position. It automatically will be pulled down and then back up to its original position with one 360 degree turn of the gear. Do a YouTube search on "Simple Linkage System" (for the piston) and "scotch yoke" The first video of each search should show you what I mean.

[hepcecob]

oh wow dude, I'm sorry, I completely missed the "scotch yoke" thing somehow. The thing is that's the way I originally intended to design this thing, but what would end up happening is that I would no only need an exact number of teeth on the outside so that the inner gear wouldn't over turn too much, I would also need a stopping mechanism so that the spoke wouldn't be able to move up and down, so I had to scrap that (plus paper gears, especially of that size, wear down easy).

[The80sKickAss]

are the spokes not attached to the middle so when they hit the screwdriver they bend around it?

[hepcecob]

I don't use anything other than paper, how would they bend back into place every single time? BTW when I post these questions, I'm not saying someone's wrong, I'm just asking to think the whole thing through. If they bend around (not saying they do), HOW do they bend around.

[TTKMKaizen]

Sorry if it has already been asked, but do the spokes slide into the centre part of the cog?

[hepcecob]

how would they do that?

[AClarke2007]

It`s a Gremlin - don`t get it wet!

[bsbllowns26]

rofll!! I've seen a couple other vids and i'm definitely subscribing xDD

[blancoracingmovies]

the covered half looks a lot bigger than the open half to me...lets drill a hole that's half an inch closer to the centre of the wheel and see what happens?

[javatar77]

Face it people, it's witchcraft.

[grafight]

the screwdriver hole is the center of a small gear. The spokes are attached to a flexible belt that sinks a little to avoid the small gear, then bends back to fit the outer wheel and push it along...

Or something like that...

Am I even close?

XD

[hepcecob]

whoa whoa, the entire thing is made out of:

printer paper,

110lb card stock,

glue

that's it.

[nUaSvAy]

The spokes aren't attached to the outside, just to the center with hinges and springs so they can bend down when they hit the screwdriver and bounce back when they pass it.

[hepcecob]

1. If they aren't attached to the outside, then how are they moving when I apply force to the outside ring?

2. Then entire thing is made out of printer and card stock paper, and glue

3. Even if they weren't attached if one of the spokes would leave their position then there would't be enough spokes to hold the center in (it would start wobbling around and fall out).

[TirianB]

They aren't attached to the inside. The outer ring runs against a guide along the inner curve on the piece that is covered, and the spokes do nothing to hold the piece together. The guide has the thickness on each side so that it stops just before the spokes. Notice that the spokes a thinner than the outer ring.

[hepcecob]

When I built this one I didn't realize how much the "shield" covered up". I know you have to take my word for it but the inner piece of the gear is spinning due to the force exerted from the spokes. Now one question though, if the spokes aren't attached to the center, how is it that I turn the whole gear by pushing a spoke yet it's able to go around the screw driver? (I'm working on a new one with a much smaller shield that doesn't cover the center piece. Will finish over winter break.

[TirianB]

When you push the spoke to turn the wheel, you hold it firmly between your fingers so it doesn't bend, it is quite obvious. Try pushing the spoke with the screwdriver instead.

[grafight]

well yeah... I meant a small PAPER gear and a flexible PAPER belt... paper is flexible, right?

[hepcecob]

well yes, but it doesn't behave anything like a metallic spring. If you bend paper, it doesn't retain it's original shape, especially the amount that the spokes would have to bend. If you know of a technique to make paper bend that much and retain its shape PLEASE share it with me (not kidding, seriously I could use it)

[grafight]

OK well... I can just surmise by your answer that I'm way off the solution... I'm sure you are aware far better than I am of what paper can do and what it can't. Judging by some of your paper artifacts there are things that I had no idea were possible. I'll rethink the gear again and see if I can figure it out.

[hepcecob]

Here's something to make it easier: this thing can be rebuilt out of wood or metal.

[TirianB]

There is a small elf inside of it. Every time a spoke comes near the screwdriver, he quickly cuts through the spoke, and then superglues it after it has passed. Quite simple actually.

[hepcecob]

SPOILER ALERT!!!

[AsCpEaOdFe]

umm. just a guess through out my so called "career" in magic or illusions im thinking that the spokes are false as in the are not conected at one part of the gear

[Jasoniscool1]

thats what I thought.

[hepcecob]

There are several people that have told me that, and I'm addressing the issue in the next "Impossible Gear 2". Not sure when I'll have it completed, but it's in the works.

P.S. the "issue" being that the shield over the gear blocks the view of the middle circle where the spokes attach, thus blocking the view of it actually turning.

[davesempai]

well the spokes don't go all the way to the outer rim where the screwdriver goes.

or is that the point?

[hepcecob]

if they don't go to the outer rim, then how does the force transfer from the outer rim to the inner ring to spin?

[davesempai]

what i meant was that the spokes aren't connecting to a center hub like most gears and tires. it's an illusion, the screwdriver looks like it is big enough to intercept the spokes but it isn't, you're fooled by the size of the handle. the spokes run on a track but are not long enough to hit the screwdiver rod.

[hepcecob]

I'm currently creating the 2nd gear (work has been put on hold a month ago until I'm done with my exams) to address problems such as this. When designing it the first time I didn't realize that the shield will be completely blocking the middle gear and the outside teeth.

[mawnstah]

how do i hit puberty if im only a lvl 4 fire mage???????////

[wowlaxis]

you can't

[speedstakerguy]

you grow

[donutman098]

how do u import google sketchup to pepakura? I've been researching for 4 hours now!

[hepcecob]

export it to Google Earth 4 format

[donutman098]

can google earth 4 take in skp , and export obj? i just have sketchup basic, not pro

[hepcecob]

watch my tutorial, your question is answered there

[bailey11o]

u ruel

[hepcecob]

thakn u

[DustMonks]

？

[hepcecob]

Care to elaborate please?

[kawasaki600ismyride]

your hackin!

[worldwar3productions]

holy flying f**k!

[manuvielum]

what glue do you use =/

[hepcecob]

Although I completely do not recommend it, I used some random water based glue. It takes a long time to dry, so each part usually has to be placed under a stack of books for a day or two to dry and keep its flat shape, otherwise it starts to curl.

[manuvielum]

thanks =p

[worldwar3productions]

is hot glu good?

[manuvielum]

amazing

[RazsterTW]

I remember making that in highschool, always a great piece to make people think. Nicely done and with paper non the less.

[r3ap3r10]

awsome how long did that take to make

[hepcecob]

including all the other prototypes, all the planing and drafting, it took more than a month

[rodyrody3]

THETA!!!

[hepcecob]

TAU!!!

[superlukie17]

how many layers is that?!?!

[hepcecob]

Depends on what parts. Since it had to be pretty sturdy a whole lot of layers were used. You don't want to know how many trees were killed in the process.

[superlukie17]

lol

[devmage]

well made, sir.

[warsmith]

i though it was another one of those fucking rickroll videos

[JabzX]

Bring it by and you might have your self a signature and quote.