Wankel all day long

July 12, 2008 4:09 PM

Two-dimensional Flash animations of gears, linkages, pumps, turbines and other mechanisms.
posted by Blazecock Pileon (17 comments total)

The crazy Theo Jansen mechanism is the total bomb. Slide those faders for all kinds of fun!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:14 PM on July 12, 2008

omgyesyesyes

If you loved this, you'll also love this which is previewed (with little or no explanation, unfortunately) here.
posted by DU at 4:27 PM on July 12, 2008

Neat.
posted by tkolar at 4:33 PM on July 12, 2008

Yay!
posted by kuujjuarapik at 4:39 PM on July 12, 2008

This is a very nice reference. Thanks!
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 4:47 PM on July 12, 2008

I gasped repeatedly. SO good.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:12 PM on July 12, 2008

A) love your title
B) this is cool
C) The guy's also got an open source Actionscript Physics Engine!!! It looks sweet AND instructional
posted by kickback at 6:26 PM on July 12, 2008

That is amazingly nifty. Thanks.
posted by sotonohito at 6:40 PM on July 12, 2008

I just really like to say Wankel Rotary Engine, and this post gives me an excuse to.

Wankel Rotary Engine.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:11 PM on July 12, 2008

I've built models of Chebyshev's four bar linkage and the Peaucellier cell. All these animated models you see on the Internet are a little deceptive, as when you go to build them in the real world you have to factor in depth. With the Peaucellier cell I used flat plastic slats as links and rivets for revolute joints. It went together fairly easily, but I still had to work out what went on top of what.

Chebyshev's linkage was more demanding. I used Heim joints for the revolute joints. As it turned out, these allowed too much lateral play, so the mechanism was kind of sloppy.

Great post, though you should consider adding a "kinematics" tag.
posted by Tube at 10:38 PM on July 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Flickr video of Chebyshev's four bar linkage.
posted by Tube at 11:07 PM on July 12, 2008

Those of you who like the original post would surely appreciate this page of animated engines as well!
posted by scose at 12:27 AM on July 13, 2008

Throbbing engine porn? Pumping pistons pushing prodigious poundage?
posted by orthogonality at 1:21 AM on July 13, 2008

Tube, those links are awesome.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:20 AM on July 13, 2008

thanks, so many good links in this thread. i spent some time (fruitlessly) looking for this stuff to show my son. also (from one of the links):

Wankel Rotary Engine
posted by geos at 3:52 AM on July 13, 2008

Nice. Shame the author spends so much time misunderstanding fluid flow through a wind turbine.
posted by scruss at 4:25 AM on July 13, 2008

Flickr video of a Peaucellier Cell Model.
posted by Tube at 11:49 PM on July 14, 2008