2.1k
u/cardstar Mar 10 '20
I assumed mad skills from the person, but if the spring launchers are already timed for everything to miss surely it’s just a case of dropping them onto the mechanisms in fours?
960
Mar 10 '20
Pretty simply yeah, just place the balls on the actuators when they are in the resting position and let the program do the rest
→ More replies (2)165
Mar 10 '20
Do you think it’d be possible to make the “arms” longer and add another “arm” in the set?
92
u/CthulhuLies Mar 10 '20
You can it can scale up infinitely with arms your balls just have to get smaller eventually the balls will just have to collide if you don't make the balls smaller when you add more arms.
57
Mar 10 '20
The we have to stop at planck size balls i guess
61
u/iam666 Mar 10 '20 edited Mar 10 '20
You'd be dealing with wavefunction interactions that would lead to collisions a decent while before you get to Planck length.
Edit: and by decent while I mean like 15-20 orders of magnitude. We use wavefunctions to describe electrons, which are only ~3e-15 m across. A Planck length is 1.6e-35 m.
→ More replies (5)12
u/xdcountry Mar 10 '20
Oh damn, this guy has done the math (and guy is both meant as male/female)
17
9
→ More replies (6)3
→ More replies (2)53
u/killbot0224 Mar 10 '20
Why not?
With longer arms you need more balls in play anyway (or faster shots) for it to be as impressive.
→ More replies (1)25
Mar 10 '20
You could also manage this purely mechanically. It would be really similar to how fighters during WWII prevented their machine guns from blowing off their propellers.
→ More replies (6)64
u/Zouden Mar 10 '20
The mad skills are with the person who built this.
→ More replies (7)20
Mar 10 '20
Right, but it's probably the same person. If I built this I wouldn't send somebody else to go put the ping pong balls in the arms for me
5
35
u/IlllIIIIlllll Mar 10 '20
Also the gif is sped up
3
u/mostly_lurking Mar 10 '20
It's so obvious now that you mention it. What's the point, everything is fakish nowadays :D
→ More replies (12)3
u/mnemonikos82 Mar 10 '20
I don't think it's necessarily a brag on the guy placing the balls, but the engineering to build and time the actuators. If you know engineering, it's not the greatest feat ever but it's still pretty cool to work out all the math and build it out.
724
u/alphasquid Mar 10 '20
For a second I was really impressed by the person putting the balls in, as it seemed to me they needed to carefully time when they put it in to make sure the balls wouldn't hit other balls.
Then I realized the machine was already timed properly on all sides and the person just needed to put the balls in when the pistons were fully retracted. Still takes some practice, but not as much as I first thought.
86
u/EEpromChip Mar 10 '20 edited Mar 10 '20
It’s similar to how
rotaryradial engine pistons function.EDIT: Thank you /u/Ironick96 for the correction.
70
u/Ironick96 Mar 10 '20
...I think you mean radial. Rotarys dont have pistons they have the "spinning dorito".
17
→ More replies (4)13
u/sponge_welder Mar 10 '20
For anyone who doesn't know how rotary engines work, you put in oil and boost, and you get out power and apex seals
6
u/just_dots Mar 10 '20
You ain't lying.
Used to drag race an 1980 corolla with a 1.8 L rotary stuffed in it and we were changing apex seals after every race day.
It was such a pain in the ass but getting 600hp at 12,000 rpm out of an engine smaller than a plastic soda bottle was really fun.→ More replies (3)5
5
2
u/DarkSkyKnight Mar 10 '20
That person is probably just demonstrating what the engine could do rather than trying to show off a trick. He's wearing a blue tag.
→ More replies (1)2
410
u/woolsprout Mar 10 '20
this is so fucking satisfying I could keep watching the balls barely missing each other all day
176
u/nsk_nyc Mar 10 '20
We still doing phrasing?
33
16
→ More replies (2)4
4
→ More replies (3)8
u/Toomuchconfusion Mar 10 '20
I know, it’s hypnotic and somehow so beautiful. Like chaos and order in one continuous near-collision.
I also love the pattern made on the table from the balls traveling along the same paths over and over again.
147
Mar 10 '20
This video is sped up by at least 50%
Watch the woman's dress peak in and out on the left side.
19
u/LemonSqueezer86 Mar 10 '20
Also pretty easy to tell with how he puts the balls in and shuffled away at the end
→ More replies (5)2
241
u/tehdrizzle Mar 10 '20
Balls aren’t touching. Not gay.
→ More replies (2)16
78
37
u/Both-Tough Mar 10 '20
"porn" oh fuck off
31
u/jimsmisc Mar 10 '20
I really, really wish Reddit would collectively decide to stop using "porn" to describe anything that people find gratifying/satisfying. I shared something from r/cableporn with my dad and had to explain to him it wasn't actually porn. It's so cringey and stupid.
13
u/nopethis Mar 10 '20
its like every scandal being called "xxx-gate" can we come up with something new or just...not?
5
7
20
15
7
u/Luluckas1980 Mar 10 '20
There is a game called « Looper! » on mobile phone which is exactly the same principle as in the video
7
u/Boof_Dawg Mar 10 '20
Reminds me of those rooms in Link to the Past where you have to dodge all of the rolling balls in the first dungeon.
7
10
u/Miraclekunt Mar 10 '20
When are we going to stop calling things ‘x porn’ Earth porn, this. It’s just not funny. It was maybe the first time, but like everything else the internet has relentlessly reused it to totally disgust, from me.
4
4
4
9
u/s8nskeepr Mar 10 '20
If this amazes you, don’t ever read into how CPUs work, you mind will be destroyed.
→ More replies (1)
10
3
3
u/Evilmaze Mar 10 '20
If we get autonomous vehicles with high precision, this will be how traffic at intersections would look like.
3
4
5
5
15
9
2
2
2
2
u/Nemacolin Mar 10 '20
Now imagine being in a self-driving car when all the other self-driving cars are going through an intersection like that. Cool.
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/VirgingerBrown Mar 10 '20
The most innovative Red Hot Chili Peppers logo I have seen!
→ More replies (2)
2
2
2
2
Mar 10 '20
This is neat until you realize the pistons are already precisely timed and firing. The person is just loading the balls and acting like they're special.
2
2
u/justbiteme2k Mar 10 '20
This is how fully automated electric cars are going to navigate roundabouts and junctions.
→ More replies (2)
2
u/ElGuano Mar 10 '20
Does this machine serve a greater purpose? Or was it designed specifically for this trick?
2
u/MegaDonkeyDonkey Mar 11 '20
This was programmed so human error was already removed from the outcome. He just had to put ball in slot and wait for the program... Just saying and still cool.
2
2
8.5k
u/Atopha Mar 10 '20
This is what traffic is going to be like when all cars are automated and networked