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A California-based company has a new kind of wheel for skateboards that delivers a novel shape and claims a special ride experience. This is the Shark Wheel, not circular, not square, but something more interesting. The wheels appear as square when in motion from a side view but the wheel geometry is more than that. The wheels feel circular to the rider, and viewing them along with more details may help to clear the mystique. The wheels are made of three strips each; these create a helical shape when they roll, and they form a sine wave pattern. When the wheels make contact with the ground, good things happen, say the team behind the wheels - the user gets speed, better grip, and a smoother ride.
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Shark Wheel to Reinvent Skateboarding Experience
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(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 24 2014, @03:51AM
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday May 24 2014, @04:03AM
I apologize. No snark, that was a serious apology. "Dude's right about his physics aside from a possible minimal drag decrease from less surface area in contact with the ground though."
He isn't and you're not. Sorry. There's a reason there are a variety of tires/wheels on a variety of wheeled-vehicles. I'd go into more detail but you've already got a good reply just waiting for you to re-read.
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 24 2014, @04:43AM
It's just physics, guy. Every joule of energy comes entirely from other than the wheels. They can only provide drag. Since the only part of a wheel that does anything at all is the exceedingly small bit of the surface in contact with the pavement, barring a tacky skin that actually grabs the pavement and assuming relatively smooth concrete you're going to have near zero drag from the wheels. Can you improve on that by lessening the surface area? Sure but improving on near zero is not anything to write home about.
Bearings, that's where you make your money in drag reduction on a skateboard.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday May 24 2014, @05:04AM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 24 2014, @05:24AM
What, dude who went on about deformation on turns? That hasn't really been an issue in over twenty years. About the only issues nowadays are how much friction do you want while applying force on a vector parallel to the axle, how much rebound do you want when hitting the pavement, size, color, and durability. Aside from these potentially slightly better designed ones, they're essentially all the same as far as speed goes.
I was a skater too until I broke myself one too many times and I just this month had to dive back in and research for a friend's kid's birthday. Personally, I'd like to try the things. They look neat and should have some interesting sliding characteristics as well as limited potential at save vs rock.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday May 24 2014, @05:58AM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 1) by Immerman on Saturday May 24 2014, @03:25PM
Roll a ball across a level plane - notice how it still comes to a stop, even in a vacuum? That's rolling resistance in action, a well known factor among engineers everywhere.
Rolling objects lose energy by two primary channels:
Deformation of the area in contact with the ground by the weight of the object
Surface adhesion - even two perfectly smooth surfaces will still generally experience electrostatic and van der Waals adhesion.
They sound like they should be miniscule, but in practice they're the primary avenue of energy loss unless you're going fast enough for air resistance to become a major factor.