Hacker News Reader

Comment by Unseelie | Hacker News Reader

I'm interested in the tolerances on that 10 micron distance...if you could build an approximation that works most of the time with much less precision, then you might be able to make sale-able objects that do such...

View on HN

> if you could build an approximation that works most of the time with much less precision, then you might be able to make sale-able objects that do such...

They're called turtles.

http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/biomechanics/10309/the-livi...

I am suprised we dont make ships with this general shape.

I am surprised we dont make ships with this general shape.

Why? So they'll right themselves if they're capsized? If a ship (not a boat) capsizes you've got pretty serious problems already.

Besides, self-righting is a very different sort of problem when you're floating.

It is fairly standard for lifeboats to be self-righting. Google "self-righting boat" for examples. The typical shape is not a gömböc, though. A gömböc would self-right, even when completely under water.

The self righting designs I'm familiar with for (large) dinghies have a lot of lead in the bottom of the boat combined with a lot of built in buoyancy - they'd probably self right deep underwater.

I'm sure a gomboc would self-right when completely underwater, but what about a floating gomboc half-submerged? Different problem.

Also, ships are not solid (as in 'filled'), let alone uniform in density. On top of that, hydrodynamics imposes more important constraints on shape. You can make a ship pretty stable by loading its keel heavily.

Ships don't have a mathematical requirement that their internal structure be one homogenous material, thus it's a trivial matter to put a weight at the lowest point of the ship so that it acts like a weeble: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeble

Reply on news.ycombinator.com