Secrets of the NOTHING GRINDER

Secrets of the NOTHING GRINDER


Mathologer
Published on Dec 7, 2018
This video is the result of me obsessing about pinning down the ultimate explanation for what is going on with the mysterious nothing grinder aka the do nothing machine aka the trammel of Archimedes. I think what I present in this video is it in this respect, but I let you be the judge. Featuring the Tusi couple (again), some really neat optical phenomenon based on the Tusi couple (I first encountered this here:

, the ellipsograph and lots of original twists to an ancient theme.

Here is a link to a .zip archive containing 3d printable .stl files of the models featuring the Mathologer logo that I showed in the video: [link to www.youtube.com (secure)]



I usually trim the corners and excess material off the (slightly slanted) vertical edges of the three sliders to make them run without catching on anything. I also sharpen the points of the pins a bit before pushing them into the sliders. They lock in place automatically, you don't have to glue them in.

Other 3d printable incarnations featuring different numbers of sliders are floating around on the net—for example search nothing grinder/do nothing machine/Archimedes trammel on [link to www.thingiverse.com (secure)]

The wiki page on the nothing grinder is also worth visiting: [link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]