Just when you think you've invented the perfect useless machine ...

It turns on you....

More like this

I can't let it go. There is more here to explore. First, I can't believe that I looked at braking and then turning but not turning then braking. And what about braking while turning? I will model braking and then turning - but it won't stop here.
[Scene: Dinner at Chateau SteelyPips. DADDY is starting to say something about his day at work, when STEELYKID interrupts.] STEELYKID: If you eat too many hot dogs, you'll turn into a hot dog!
Sorry I haven't blogged for a bit - I've been on the road, err, sky for a while.
One of the nice things about energy is that there's many, many different forms of it. There's many, many different ways to convert between those forms.

The real trick is to have a graduate student operate the machine 1000 times, documenting every attempt in his lab book - then let the machine run away at 999.

IIRC, a similarly infuriating machine was described in an early New Scientist, in the late 60s (it had a hand that popped out).

By Richard Simons (not verified) on 01 Sep 2011 #permalink