Veritasium
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2019–2021
12:52 · 13M views · Mar 12, 2019
Veritasium explores compliant mechanisms, devices that move by flexing rather than using hinges and joints, with researchers at BYU. It covers advantages such as fewer parts and precision, including uses in nuclear weapon safety.
HN commenters like it as a high-quality, accessible look at an under-appreciated engineering idea and bring it up in snap-fit and hinge discussions.
4 comments from Hacker News
Veritasium videos are pretty darn high quality. Fun to watch and learn from, sometimes mindblowingly. Definitely recommend subscribing. One of my favorites is Derek's video on compliant mechanisms: this video
There wouldn't be much to 'leak'. The nuclear material in weapons is relatively safe to handle as long as you don't ingest it. It's the post-explosion fission products that are nasty. Also with nuclear weapons, as much engineering has gone into safety as into weapon design itself. It's astronomically improbable for a modern nuclear weapon to detonate prior to arming even if the explosive lens is set off. The reentry vehicle is designed to come down at circa mach 14 so a little bit of heat and jostling isn't going to bother it. Cool video about some of the engineering involved: this video
Folks that like this might like CNC joinery and compliant mechanisms. [LINK] Why Machines That Bend Are Better this video
One could use compliant hinges [1] to help mitigate moon dust issues, those will have to be dealt with anyway. Found the link [LINK] > Light Bender is a novel concept for the generation and distribution of power on the lunar surface within the context of the Artemis mission and the “Long-Term Human Lunar Surface Presence” that will follow. The innovative concept is based on a heliostat that utilizes Cassegrain telescope optics as the primary means to capture, concentrate and focus the sun's light. A second key innovation is the use of a Fresnel lens to collimate this light for distribution to multiple end users at distances of a kilometer or more away without substantial losses. The redirected and concentrated solar energy is then converted to electricity at the end user’s location using small (2m-4m diameter) photovoltaic arrays that can be mounted on habitats, cryo-coolers, or mobile assets such as rovers or ISRU elements. This concept is superior to alternatives such as highly inefficient Laser Power Beaming, as it only converts light to electricity once, and to traditional power distribution architectures that rely on mass intensive cables. [1] [LINK] [LINK] this video This is a great recent example of a joystick adapter using compliant mechanisms, [LINK]