LEGO Lemniscate

A LEGO lemniscate linkage. The center of the middle bar traces the lemniscate of Bernoulli. In the dark shots, the linkage is lit with black light causing the small green disk to fluoresce.

Music is "Winter was Hard," performed by Kronos Quartet.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Lemniscate
• Infinity Symbol
• Lego
• technic
• kinetic sculpture
• Infinity
• linkage
• watt's linkage

[MyopicM2C1]

Beautiful! What would happen if you were to power only one of the linkages and left the other freely hanging (as opposed to powering both with a differential)? I guess its to keep the speed similar on both phases of the curve?

[aklego]

@MyopicM2C1 In order for the lemniscate to have a fluid motion, each rotating arm needs a cycloidal angular velocity--you can see each arm pause briefly during each rotation. The two arms are 180° out of phase and the sum of their angular velocities is a constant. That is where the differential comes in. If you try to power a single arm, the mechanism jams.

[aeh5040]

Awesome, inspiring, beautiful! Well done! What is the purpose of the two elastic bands, please?

[aklego]

@aeh5040 The two bands add just a little bit of friction and greatly smooth the motion.

[MisterFitzGibbon]

Even more wonderful than the famous knitting machine! Thanks once again

[KEvronista]

okay, this moc actually made me go "oooh!"

i understand diffs, but they're far from second nature to me. you guys who find elaborate uses for diffs always astonish me.

KEvron

[didsomebodysayWAFFLE]

:D

[tucense]

patty cake, patty cake

[ElicaTeam]

The idea of fluorescent lemniscate is brilliant!