Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Question: Did you learn about so-called “simple machines” (lever, wheel-axle, inclined plane, wedge, screw is one popular set) in school? Did your teacher critique the model or offer alternatives to it? (for context, from a modern engineering perspective, this is basically a bullshit theory of machines on par with 5 elements, 4 humors etc)
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Tony D’Addeo pfp
Tony D’Addeo
@deodad
teaching us the greater lesson that authorities will present their shit maps to you as truth
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links 🏴 pfp
links 🏴
@links
…oh damn for real? I honestly thought it was a legit theory of mechanical primitives. Are there more primitives?
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rafa pfp
rafa
@rafa
Yes, they were taught as something like “the basic mechanics” and they could be combined like legos for more complex ones. But I personally never understood how those basics were discovered. Interesting, they sit in my mind in a diff bucket than friction and Young’s modulus etc.
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Patrick Atwater pfp
Patrick Atwater
@patwater
Yeah I remember these in hs physics and no alternative
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