A Clever Model and A Good Explanation

Ian made a spectacular model out of K'nex (kind of a new-fangled variation on lego's, only smaller and more intricate). He made it based on a diagram that came with the set, and it was an amusement park ride, where you turn the crank and one gear turns another, with an axle somewhere in the mix, and a cylinder with several dangling pieces simulating the whirling seats on some kind of cyclotron-type attraction engaging centrifugal force. The only thing unusual about his model is that when he turned the crank, the "seats" would actually flap against the pole in the middle of the structure, but he put that little design flaw into perspective:

"Well in real life, that wouldn't happen because there would be something controlling it."

(September 25, 2010)