Grandpa Pencil
Learns how to make an
Antigravity Machine


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I wonder if Isaac Newton was wrong with his 'First Law of Motion'.
The law states that:-

'A body is incapable of changing it's condition of rest, or of motion in a straight line at a constant speed, unless it is 'persuaded' to do so by some external force.'
In the Antigravity Machine that external force is gravity and yet, instead of rolling downhill as one would expect, the machine rolls uphill.

How to make it

I am really sick of always gluing my fingers together so I went out and bought some of those cone shaped party hats for the machine.

  • You will need two cones (or party hats) which you will stick together, like the illustration above, with gaffer or packaging tape.
  • Next you will need to make the ramp for your machine.
    You can use something like a good quality wine carton or fruit and veg. carton for this.
  • Take your chosen carton and cut off two sides leaving the hinged section at A
  • The height of A matters little but the slope, between A and C should rise, to C, by around one third of the diameter of the large open section of your cone.
  • The spread of the ramp at D can be around the total width of the two joined cones.
  • Place your Antigravity machine on the ramp near end A and delight in watching it roll uphill. Why is that?
  • Experiment with different slopes, with different sized cones as well as different lengths and spreads of the ramp.
 

 

Newton has not made a mistake here.
If you look closely you will note that, while the machine seems to be climbing, the centre of mass is actually falling under the influence of gravity.

     

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