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Meccano/Nexus One lava-lamp-testing centrifuge!

Robotics

Neil Fraserโ€™s Lava Lamp Centrifuge is 10โ€ฒ across, weighs 50 pounds, and spins at 42 rpm generating 3 Gs. It uses a Nexus Oneโ€™s accelerometer to measure g-force. Excellent!

Will lava lamps work in a high-gravity environment such as Jupiter? This topic spawned considerable lunch-time discussion and no clear consensus emerged. Most people initially assumed that the wax would sink to the bottom and wouldnโ€™t cycle, but as the physics was examined in greater depth this assumption became difficult to defend.

To find out how lava lamps behave in super-terrestrial gravity, I built a large centrifuge in my living room. This was intended to be a fun activity for a long weekend in January. However the projectโ€™s size and power requirements were well outside my previous experience. Thus it was a rich learning experience as I encountered one metal-shredding and wire-melting failure after another. In the end, perseverance paid off and I obtained the answer to the original question.

[Thanks, hectocotyli!]

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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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