Convexity is a bothersome dimension
August 1, 2016 11:31 AM Subscribe
Like a glove.
posted by Agent_X_ at 11:38 AM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Agent_X_ at 11:38 AM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
mmm!
posted by duffell at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by duffell at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
Guy: "Hello wife! I am back from the store after having gotten everything on your shopping list. After almost scraping that tree yet again, I have put the automobile in it's Harry Potter like closet. I honestly have no idea what I'll do once that tree grows to a larger size. But that is a worry for future me. Now I can sit down in my favorite chair and sup upon my favorite liquid refreshment. Aaaaahhhh...life is good."
Wife: "You forgot the garlic, husband."
Guy: "ffffffffffuuuuuuu"
posted by NoMich at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2016 [26 favorites]
Wife: "You forgot the garlic, husband."
Guy: "ffffffffffuuuuuuu"
posted by NoMich at 11:50 AM on August 1, 2016 [26 favorites]
This looks more like something a programmer would come up with. I'm thinking more like,
Wife: Why did you get a dozen loaves of bread, husband?
Guy: Because they had eggs!
posted by Naberius at 12:13 PM on August 1, 2016 [11 favorites]
Wife: Why did you get a dozen loaves of bread, husband?
Guy: Because they had eggs!
posted by Naberius at 12:13 PM on August 1, 2016 [11 favorites]
/contemplates such a solution for the husband's Smart car
posted by msbutah at 12:15 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by msbutah at 12:15 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
My favorite bit is when he folds in the side mirrors. I may-- repeat, may-- have gone "squeeee!".
posted by phooky at 12:27 PM on August 1, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by phooky at 12:27 PM on August 1, 2016 [5 favorites]
In the apartment we lived in in grad school, I had a shower that was tucked under the slope of the roof. I found that absurdly pleasing—because the water goes down at a slant*, guys!—but this is even better.
I know it's a parabola, do not even think of well-actuallying me.
posted by BrashTech at 12:36 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
I know it's a parabola, do not even think of well-actuallying me.
posted by BrashTech at 12:36 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
I would've contemplated this and then given up & bought a motorcycle.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:43 PM on August 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:43 PM on August 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
The systems engineer in me is saying things like: "not scalable, high risk of operator failure, slow deployment time". The hacker in me is saying "rad af man you do it you park that car don't stop for nothin' or nobody".
Conflicted. This is like a glass half full glass half empty type of situation. A car needs parking, the car got parked. I don't know the constraints on this solution. Perhaps there is no suitable street parking. Perhaps the high risk of theft justifies the low efficiency and time cost. Perhaps this gentleman was just bored one day and thought to himself "I'm pretty sure that shit could fit in there".
Who am I to judge? What am I doing with my life? Will I ever find happiness? Could I fit my car into a tiny angled space? Should I? Deep analysis of this video requires deep introspection into oneself and into the nature of the world and our shared collective place within it.
A man has fit his car into a tiny space and also we are all of us lost and searching for meaning.
Today is Monday.
posted by tracert at 12:44 PM on August 1, 2016 [94 favorites]
Conflicted. This is like a glass half full glass half empty type of situation. A car needs parking, the car got parked. I don't know the constraints on this solution. Perhaps there is no suitable street parking. Perhaps the high risk of theft justifies the low efficiency and time cost. Perhaps this gentleman was just bored one day and thought to himself "I'm pretty sure that shit could fit in there".
Who am I to judge? What am I doing with my life? Will I ever find happiness? Could I fit my car into a tiny angled space? Should I? Deep analysis of this video requires deep introspection into oneself and into the nature of the world and our shared collective place within it.
A man has fit his car into a tiny space and also we are all of us lost and searching for meaning.
Today is Monday.
posted by tracert at 12:44 PM on August 1, 2016 [94 favorites]
Metafilter: The systems engineer in me is saying things
posted by Foci for Analysis at 12:54 PM on August 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 12:54 PM on August 1, 2016 [3 favorites]
My creaky old knees are appreciating the raised entry/exit position.
posted by flabdablet at 1:02 PM on August 1, 2016
posted by flabdablet at 1:02 PM on August 1, 2016
So the only reason it needs to be tilted is to reduce the car's length the roughly, er, 2" that tilting a 10-12' long object 24" at one end gains you?
Seems to me there are other ways to do this, with added bonus of some street cred.
posted by maxwelton at 1:14 PM on August 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
Seems to me there are other ways to do this, with added bonus of some street cred.
posted by maxwelton at 1:14 PM on August 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
Salesman: "Now, this model is both compact AND stylish. Would you like to take it for a test drive, sir?"
Under-Stairs Garage Owner: "Maybe later, but first I need to take some complete and very precise measurements of this vehicle's exterior -- could you hold one end of this tape measure? Thanks. Also, do these side mirrors fold in?"
posted by mosk at 1:15 PM on August 1, 2016 [7 favorites]
Under-Stairs Garage Owner: "Maybe later, but first I need to take some complete and very precise measurements of this vehicle's exterior -- could you hold one end of this tape measure? Thanks. Also, do these side mirrors fold in?"
posted by mosk at 1:15 PM on August 1, 2016 [7 favorites]
A man has fit his car into a tiny space and also we are all of us lost and searching for meaning.
I would like to watch a Werner Herzog documentary about this guy.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:29 PM on August 1, 2016 [19 favorites]
I would like to watch a Werner Herzog documentary about this guy.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:29 PM on August 1, 2016 [19 favorites]
It doesn't fit without tilting because the nose of the car is too high. There is plenty of prior art for reducing the height of the nose to fit however, as shown in this car ad also filmed in India.
posted by ambrosen at 2:06 PM on August 1, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by ambrosen at 2:06 PM on August 1, 2016 [8 favorites]
It doesn't fit without tilting because the nose of the car is too high.
Yes, and while it is otherwise awesome, I can't help thinking he should have lowered the platform - putting the lateral wheels inside the ramps and dropping the car to just above the ground - and he wouldn't have needed the angle at all. Of course, he also has a perfect means of servicing the car with the ability to lift the car one end, so that is a suitable riposte, but it is a tiny bit more complex than it needs to be.
Raising the front lead in ramps to be level with the street seems to be easy enough too. I wonder why he didn't do that. It would make that sudden jolt as the front wheels come up it and the rears go up the ramp a little less critical on clutch action versus 'smashing the doors off their hinges'.
posted by Brockles at 2:18 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yes, and while it is otherwise awesome, I can't help thinking he should have lowered the platform - putting the lateral wheels inside the ramps and dropping the car to just above the ground - and he wouldn't have needed the angle at all. Of course, he also has a perfect means of servicing the car with the ability to lift the car one end, so that is a suitable riposte, but it is a tiny bit more complex than it needs to be.
Raising the front lead in ramps to be level with the street seems to be easy enough too. I wonder why he didn't do that. It would make that sudden jolt as the front wheels come up it and the rears go up the ramp a little less critical on clutch action versus 'smashing the doors off their hinges'.
posted by Brockles at 2:18 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm sure nobody would ever over-accelerate their car off the back of that ramp. Doesn't look like it, 6 years later, but what do I know? What happens when he buys the new car?
posted by Chuffy at 2:21 PM on August 1, 2016
posted by Chuffy at 2:21 PM on August 1, 2016
Admirable. I salute you, sir.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:00 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:00 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
Metafilter has tilted this plate so much that the beans are falling off, in order to fit it into our framework.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:17 PM on August 1, 2016 [12 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:17 PM on August 1, 2016 [12 favorites]
The door doesn't even open on its own, let alone open without multiple steps!
3/10 on the Mad Engineer scale. Points lost for under-overengineering his problem.
posted by tclark at 3:32 PM on August 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
3/10 on the Mad Engineer scale. Points lost for under-overengineering his problem.
posted by tclark at 3:32 PM on August 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
MetaFilter: do not even think of well-actuallying me.
That's... actually... a pretty good approach.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:35 PM on August 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
That's... actually... a pretty good approach.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:35 PM on August 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
Let's see how many bicycles fit in there!
No? OK...
posted by klanawa at 4:23 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
No? OK...
posted by klanawa at 4:23 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
8/10 for thinking outside of the (odd-shaped) box.
-7 points for that obnoxious alarm chirp.
Final score: 1/10.
posted by madajb at 4:36 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
-7 points for that obnoxious alarm chirp.
Final score: 1/10.
posted by madajb at 4:36 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
I just wish they had the video from the initial test-run before he added the ramps for the rear wheels where he found out that his perfectly planned system didn't quite fit the space available.
posted by ckape at 4:45 PM on August 1, 2016
posted by ckape at 4:45 PM on August 1, 2016
Ha "I totally have it sorted!" *slide*....... CLUNK. "crap".
posted by Brockles at 5:12 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Brockles at 5:12 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
It looks like he could, if necessary, beef up the rails to project the ramp right out into the street so that he could reverse onto it without that messy back-and-fill.
I've also added Miss Cellania, Bad Newspaper and a couple of similar sites to my reading list, so this post is full of time-wasting win.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 5:39 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've also added Miss Cellania, Bad Newspaper and a couple of similar sites to my reading list, so this post is full of time-wasting win.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 5:39 PM on August 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
Man, that poor car is going to be SO STOKED when its Hogwarts letter finally gets through.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:45 PM on August 1, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:45 PM on August 1, 2016 [9 favorites]
I love my father, and he loves me. But like many American sons and fathers, we have trouble connecting, trouble communicating; he's always been very gruff and matter-of-fact, the kind of father who is the basis for this piece in the Onion. He's an engineer, nearing the age of retirement, and is a prime example of why certain stereotypes of middle-aged engineers exist in the first place.
So I thank Mr. Kumar, and I thank you, Johnny Wallflower. I will send this link to my father, and he will laugh, and he will be impressed by Mr. Kumar's work and begin pointing out possible areas for improvement (starting, I imagine, with opportunities to automate the process via pistons and levers and a small electric engine.) After thirty-one years I still don't really know how to break through my dad's emotional walls, but I know that this improbably precise and elaborate feat of engineering is a step in the right direction.
posted by Tomorrowful at 5:46 PM on August 1, 2016 [11 favorites]
So I thank Mr. Kumar, and I thank you, Johnny Wallflower. I will send this link to my father, and he will laugh, and he will be impressed by Mr. Kumar's work and begin pointing out possible areas for improvement (starting, I imagine, with opportunities to automate the process via pistons and levers and a small electric engine.) After thirty-one years I still don't really know how to break through my dad's emotional walls, but I know that this improbably precise and elaborate feat of engineering is a step in the right direction.
posted by Tomorrowful at 5:46 PM on August 1, 2016 [11 favorites]
Puts me in the mind of this concept art for the life boat in Alien, and now I wish he included hatch covers that blast off the sides when he departs.
posted by ejs at 6:18 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ejs at 6:18 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
I love my father, and he loves me.... He's an engineer, nearing the age of retirement, and is a prime example of why certain stereotypes of middle-aged engineers exist in the first place.
Heh. This video also totally reminded me of my retired-engineer father and his extracurricular engineering projects. My folks bought an RV in the 90s, a fifth wheel. They live in the country and needed a place to park it, so he built a barn for RV parking out back, behind some cedar trees. Dirt floor -- no concrete or anything. Just four tall walls and a roof to protect the RV from the elements.
When they upgraded their RV in the early aughts, it turned out that the barn wasn't tall enough for the new fifth wheel. So, naturally, my started digging. And digging. He spent a couple weeks trying to dig out the floor of that barn so that the new RV would fit. Problem: In their part of Texas, there's only a couple inches of topsoil before you hit limestone. While his efforts were valiant and his labor admirable, it was more of a mining/quarrying project than a digging-a-hole project, and he was not actually able to dig a hole deep enough to park the RV in.**
He then made the only reasonable decision a retired engineer could make in this situation: He built a new barn, a taller barn -- a barn with rafters 16 feet off the ground -- out back behind a whole different stand of cedar trees, and he parked the RV there instead.
I will send this link to my father, and he will laugh, and he will be impressed by Mr. Kumar's work and begin pointing out possible areas for improvement.... After thirty-one years I still don't really know how to break through my dad's emotional walls, but I know that this improbably precise and elaborate feat of engineering is a step in the right direction.
Ow -- this hits home so hard that it hurts. My dad passed away six weeks ago, on Father's Day. I'm only just now really noticing that he's gone, and it's stuff like this that does it. I wanted to send this to my dad -- would have sent it to him if he was still here. He would have watched it, enjoyed it, and responded with some very funny quip. But not a "thanks for sending." Never a "thanks for sending." I would have known, though, that he was tickled that I sent it, and that he was happy that it made me think of him, and filling in that blank would have been both natural and okay.
I hope your dad likes the video, Tomorrowful.
**Some years earlier he did, however, successfully dig a hole large enough to bury pieces of a chest freezer he'd cut apart with a Sawzall, because the chest freezer stopped working when they were out of town for several weeks, and the smell was unbearable, and for some reason it made more sense to him to cut it apart and bury the thing in A REALLY BIG HOLE than it did to take it to the dump, in the bed of his F-150, and pay the dump $20 to dispose of it. My dad's success with big holes throughout the course of his life: Decidedly mixed.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:30 PM on August 1, 2016 [12 favorites]
Heh. This video also totally reminded me of my retired-engineer father and his extracurricular engineering projects. My folks bought an RV in the 90s, a fifth wheel. They live in the country and needed a place to park it, so he built a barn for RV parking out back, behind some cedar trees. Dirt floor -- no concrete or anything. Just four tall walls and a roof to protect the RV from the elements.
When they upgraded their RV in the early aughts, it turned out that the barn wasn't tall enough for the new fifth wheel. So, naturally, my started digging. And digging. He spent a couple weeks trying to dig out the floor of that barn so that the new RV would fit. Problem: In their part of Texas, there's only a couple inches of topsoil before you hit limestone. While his efforts were valiant and his labor admirable, it was more of a mining/quarrying project than a digging-a-hole project, and he was not actually able to dig a hole deep enough to park the RV in.**
He then made the only reasonable decision a retired engineer could make in this situation: He built a new barn, a taller barn -- a barn with rafters 16 feet off the ground -- out back behind a whole different stand of cedar trees, and he parked the RV there instead.
I will send this link to my father, and he will laugh, and he will be impressed by Mr. Kumar's work and begin pointing out possible areas for improvement.... After thirty-one years I still don't really know how to break through my dad's emotional walls, but I know that this improbably precise and elaborate feat of engineering is a step in the right direction.
Ow -- this hits home so hard that it hurts. My dad passed away six weeks ago, on Father's Day. I'm only just now really noticing that he's gone, and it's stuff like this that does it. I wanted to send this to my dad -- would have sent it to him if he was still here. He would have watched it, enjoyed it, and responded with some very funny quip. But not a "thanks for sending." Never a "thanks for sending." I would have known, though, that he was tickled that I sent it, and that he was happy that it made me think of him, and filling in that blank would have been both natural and okay.
I hope your dad likes the video, Tomorrowful.
**Some years earlier he did, however, successfully dig a hole large enough to bury pieces of a chest freezer he'd cut apart with a Sawzall, because the chest freezer stopped working when they were out of town for several weeks, and the smell was unbearable, and for some reason it made more sense to him to cut it apart and bury the thing in A REALLY BIG HOLE than it did to take it to the dump, in the bed of his F-150, and pay the dump $20 to dispose of it. My dad's success with big holes throughout the course of his life: Decidedly mixed.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:30 PM on August 1, 2016 [12 favorites]
When self-driving cars become common, this will be everyone's reality.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a side-mirror folding in on itself - forever.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:23 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a side-mirror folding in on itself - forever.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:23 PM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
I honestly have no idea what I'll do once that tree grows to a larger size.
Seeing how damaged it is, I'd be more worried about the tree falling over than ever growing too large.
I'm sure nobody would ever over-accelerate their car off the back of that ramp.
I bet you didn't notice the tire stoppers at the back of the ramp that seem to be there to prevent exactly that from happening.
posted by daniel_charms at 3:05 AM on August 2, 2016
Seeing how damaged it is, I'd be more worried about the tree falling over than ever growing too large.
I'm sure nobody would ever over-accelerate their car off the back of that ramp.
I bet you didn't notice the tire stoppers at the back of the ramp that seem to be there to prevent exactly that from happening.
posted by daniel_charms at 3:05 AM on August 2, 2016
I see where they've shaped the underside of the staircase. I wonder whether this car or its predecessor might not've quite fit.
Motorized rear view mirrors are a thing. In dense cities they make a lot of sense... Adds a premium to the car but can cost a lot less than having to replace one that got snapped off.
posted by ardgedee at 5:02 AM on August 2, 2016
Motorized rear view mirrors are a thing. In dense cities they make a lot of sense... Adds a premium to the car but can cost a lot less than having to replace one that got snapped off.
posted by ardgedee at 5:02 AM on August 2, 2016
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posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:36 AM on August 1, 2016 [2 favorites]