Images for: Analog Computer Creation
|
Waves From Levitating Potato
Matched sine and triangle waves. The ratio of the slopes at the midpoints (and therefore maximum slopes) is Pi/2. |
|
Circuit assembledFrom Levitating Potato
(1) Sine wave generator (with lightbulb lower left) (2) Square wave generator (3) Triangle wave amplitude adjust (4) Integrator aka triangle wave generator (5) Integrator zero offset adjust (6) Slope detector aka differentiator (7) Slope detector amplitude adjust (8) Negative peak detector (9) Very poor scope probe connection technique (10) Bipolar power supply |
|
Sine amplitudeFrom Levitating Potato
Measuring the amplitude of the sine wave. Top trace is sine wave, bottom trace is negative peak detector output. |
|
Triangle amplitudeFrom Levitating Potato
Measuring the triangle wave amplitude, adjusted to be the same as the sine wave. |
|
PIFrom Levitating Potato
Final step: read the maximum slope of the sine wave generator, aka Pi: 3.103 (Negative value is due to component selection and negative-going peak [trough] detection.) |
|
DANGER HIGH VOLTAGEFrom Levitating Potato
Old equipment is awesome. Note manufacturer-supplied silver-bearing solder. |
|
Science!From Levitating Potato
Glowing science, to be specific. (Vacuum tubes in the oscilloscope.) |
|
SchematicFrom Levitating Potato
Simplified schematic. |
|
Power suppliesFrom Levitating Potato
These are the foot-crushingly heavy power supplies I used. They're slightly overkill for this project, but they're well suited to analog work. |