Wanna see something cool #2

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,782

Thread Starter

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
9,744
Oh if I could just build a Time Machine and go back to watch those magnificent gods. Oh gods they were. They ruled the earth for millions of years.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,895
It's hard to believe this thing actually works. I bet that it de-tunes easily with changes in temperature:

Very interesting... and more than a bit reckless!

As for the sensitivity of the tuning, I agree. But, then again, that's something that many string instruments have to deal with. Violins always seem to be tuning! It would be interesting to note how this compares.

Another thing that I think deserves a mention is that the bending of that 3D printed guitar frame wasn't because of the strong magnets, it was because of the tension needed by the strings and the frame would have failed even if the strings had been conventionally mounted.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,895
This was an interesting video in it's own right. Gives an idea of how detailed the reworking of something like a piano is.


The thing that I really liked about the video is that she is explaining what she is doing and why. I find that SO preferable to all of these videos that just have music and show jerky fast-motion work that explains absolutely nothing -- including in videos that are supposedly meant to teach you something.
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
32,895
The press release makes not of it being the U.S.'s first-generation highly-elliptical orbit (HEO) satellite, but gives no indication of what the significant of an HEO orbit it. Ideally, you'd want to part the satellite so that was directly over Soviet territory 24/7, but that's not possible (despite what Hollywood seems to think). The best you could do would be to put it a geostationary orbit (GEO), but that means it's directly over the equator and would have a glancing view of the northern part of the USSR, with very poor or even impossible views of many of their ICBM sites. Even if this weren't a problem, putting a satellite into GEO is expensive, and something that had only been accomplished about seven years prior to the first JUMPSEAT launch.

But an HEO, which can be achieved with a smaller launch vehicle, let the satellite loiter high over the USSR for most (something like 2/3) of its twelve hour orbit and then dash around the Earth's southern hemisphere. Also, from a high orbit, things on the ground are moving slowly, allowing signal detection to integrate for long periods of time from a stable position to average out noise.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
16,333
The press release makes not of it being the U.S.'s first-generation highly-elliptical orbit (HEO) satellite, but gives no indication of what the significant of an HEO orbit it. Ideally, you'd want to part the satellite so that was directly over Soviet territory 24/7, but that's not possible (despite what Hollywood seems to think). The best you could do would be to put it a geostationary orbit (GEO), but that means it's directly over the equator and would have a glancing view of the northern part of the USSR, with very poor or even impossible views of many of their ICBM sites. Even if this weren't a problem, putting a satellite into GEO is expensive, and something that had only been accomplished about seven years prior to the first JUMPSEAT launch.

But an HEO, which can be achieved with a smaller launch vehicle, let the satellite loiter high over the USSR for most (something like 2/3) of its twelve hour orbit and then dash around the Earth's southern hemisphere. Also, from a high orbit, things on the ground are moving slowly, allowing signal detection to integrate for long periods of time from a stable position to average out noise.
The Russians called HEO the lightning orbit.
 

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