From: bill@iglobal.net
Date: Thu Nov 28 1996 - 16:55:26 MST
> I know Pawlicki. I also know that he had a live demonstration on
> Canadian Public Radio of his demonstrator. It did work, though it was so
> imbalanced and poorly designed that it self destructed once it finished
> a few trips across the room.
Such a mechanism can easily give the illusion of working when it is
applied to a vehicle that has even a little static friction. The
more intense and shorter duration "pulse" of force as the weight goes
through the fast part of it's path can overcome static friction
(aka "stiction") better than the longer duration slow part of the
cycle. I'd bet that oiling the wheels of Pawlicki's machine, or
placing it on an air track, would greatly worsen it's performance,
thus disolving the illusion. IMHO, Pawlicki is either suffering from
a serious case of self delusion, or is a deliberate quack. I don't
want to get into speculating about which of these is the case.
---
Peace,
William Kitchen
bill@iglobal.net
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