An Idiot's Guide to Gizmology

Savis, dissatisfied with her understanding of gadgets, decides to copy a book in the library.

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The Diamond of Kalea is located on Kalea's extreme west coast and called as such because its completely made of a crystalline substance called Skyglass. Home of the Alvina of the Stars, cultural mecca of knowledge seekers, and rife with Ethaefal, this remote city shimmers with its own unique light.

An Idiot's Guide to Gizmology

Postby Savis Maren on November 13th, 2018, 12:02 am

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89th of Autumn, 518

Enough is enough, the Nuit mused as she packed away the last of her possessions. The Nuit was in transition, but the common theme throughout her packing process was present throughout. Savis Maren possessed a number of tools, brought to life by Animation, that she had no idea how to operate without the usage of that magic. Machines and their ilk were foreign to the Nuit, her limited capacity in the discipline of Gadgeteering, at last, brought to an eruption of self-depreciation. She felt the ignorance that welled within her and her silver eyes narrowed in distaste. More and more, the undead mage required understanding, and it simply could not be put off any longer. The woman threw her coat over her shoulders, leaving the fully packed Wheels in his placel instead taking just her satchel as she made her way to the Bharani Library. On her way to the library, Savis Maren stopped by The Good Book, purchasing a blank, leather-bound book and 10 charcoal writing sticks from Keper before continuing her path to the Library.

When the Nuit arrived within that grand library, she passed by the ornate desk and the hideous, pale Savant who sat behind it. Savis kept her gaze forward as she set through the library in search of that particular section she'd found seasons past. There was a book there that the Nuit picked up, over and over, in her half-hearted effort to peruse it in search of the inspiration to put her mind to task. It never arrived, but Savis found the knowledge a requirement rather than a simple, blind musing of an intrigued woman. The discipline of Animation began to open new doors for her, new possibilities that set ablaze infinite potential within the undead's thoughts. However, that very same knowledge, the potential that arose within Animation, need meet its equal in mundane sciences. The Nuit was versed in the principles of djed, her understanding of the astral components of magic to... not quite her satisfaction but certainly it was a start. As she considered the matter, she reached that section and found her silver eyes wandering the frame of the stacks until at last, she found the dusty spine she was after.

Gears and Gizmos: Principles of Gadgeteering. Written by Benjamin Lucis. Two seasons passed since Savis Maren last touched this tome, though she'd certainly tried with others. However, the Nuit had a good feeling today, intent on breaking the spell of ignorance she placed over herself with careful study. The Nuit made her way to the nearest empty table, slinging her satchel over the stone surfaces before producing that dark leather book she'd purchased. The Nuit began reading, checking line after line as she began to copy the passages over to her personal tome. The Bharani Library, unfortunately, did not allow her to take books home with her, but at the very least, she could spend long enough inside the place to replicate it for herself. As she wrote, she took careful note of the first lesson, which described six simple machines and how each one implemented mechanical advantage (also defined in later paragraphs as leverage) to take work and multiply the forces that be to greater use.

A simple machine uses a single applied force to do work against a single load force. Ignoring friction losses, the work done on the load is equal to the work done by the applied force. The machine can increase the amount of the output force, at the cost of a proportional decrease in the distance moved by the load. The ratio of the output to the applied force is called the mechanical advantage, the Nuit transcribed into her new journal. Once the Nuit took to heart the principles of mechanical advantage, she moved forward in the book, to a section that described each of the simple machines in detail.

Ledger :
-3ki for a leather-bound blank book. -5jki for 10 charcoal stix


WC: 653


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Last edited by Savis Maren on November 13th, 2018, 2:39 am, edited 2 times in total.
Savis Maren
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An Idiot's Guide to Gizmology

Postby Savis Maren on November 13th, 2018, 12:03 am

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89th of Autumn, 518 AV

Lever.

The first of the six simple machines was one that the Nuit knew had practical uses all throughout Mizahar. However, she'd never considered how the word provided the etymology to the term leverage, nor did she consider how levers adapted force in it of themselves. She copied the text regarding levers before reading over the text over and over, intent on properly understanding the lever principle and more importantly, the different classes of levers that existed.

A lever is a beam connected to a firm surface by a hinge, or pivot, called a fulcrum. The ideal lever does not dissipate or store energy, which means there is no friction in the hinge or bending in the beam. In this case, the power into the lever equals the power out, and the ratio of output to input force is given by the ratio of the distances from the fulcrum to the points of application of these forces.

The Nuit's left hand worked at the page of her journal as she turned the page of the Gadgeteering tome, her mind working to catalog the information as she thought to the practical application of levers and realized there wasn't much she could think of right off-hand. Well, these are 'simple machines' after all. The text will surely go on to explain just how these simple ones turn lead into the creation of more advanced mechanisms, she thought as she completed copying the remainder of that page. Moving on to the right side of the book. the text went on to describe the basic equation of mechanical advantage regarding levers.

T1=F1aT2=F2b

To Savis, the text was entirely foreign, the utilization of mathematics in Gadgeteering, however, was simply another thing she had to come to terms with. Fortunately, as with any good text, there was an explanation to what each letter in the equation meant.

F1 and F2 are the forces that be, with 1 being the input force and 2 being the output force. a and b refer to distances, in this case being the perpendicular distances between aforementioned forces and the fulcrum. T is torque, in effect being the balance of movements considered in the calculation of mechanical advantage.

Savis Maren took her time to process the entirety of the equation, carefully noting it into her tome before allowing it to creep into the vestiges of memory. When satisfied with her reading about the initial equation, she considered the mathematical explanations that followed.

When calculating the mechanical advantage of a lever, the forces and the perpindicular distances between the levers are equal. In short: F2/F1 = a/b.

The Nuit, satisfied with her understanding of the mathematical principles revolving around the creation and usage of levers, moved forward and began to read about the different classes of levers. When the Nuit considered them, it seemed that the placement of the fulcrum was the defining factor in determining the class. The book provided useful examples, and Savis, rather than inscribing everything, paraphrased the text in this instance instead.

Class 1: Fulcrum is located in the middle of the lever. Input is on one side, and the output force (ie: the resistance or load) is on the other. Examples of a Class 1 lever would be a pair of scissors or a crowbar put into use. 1 ≥ MA ≤ 1

"Ah! A lever isn't merely a machine, but any example that suitably represents the lever principle. Interesting," she mused aloud, not bothering to look around for eavesdroppers.

Class 2: Output/Resistance/Load (which for future reference will be called the load) in the middle. Work is applied on one side of the load and the fulcrum is on the opposite side. Examples of a Class 2 lever include a nutcracker or a wheelbarrow. MA > 1. This lever is also referred to as the 'force multiplier lever.'

"These examples are giving a good idea of how the lever principle applies to so many more things than just simply 'levers'," the Nuit observed.

Class 3: Work set in the middle. The load is on one side of the placement of work (for future reference referred to as the 'effort') and the fulcrum is on the other. MA < 1. This lever is also referred to as the 'speed multiplier' lever.

Savis Maren continued to copy the remainder of the page, which detailed the lever principle as a review, but satisfied that she'd picked up a proper grasp of the lever principle, she simply focused on getting the information written down before moving on to the next of the simple machines.

WC: 763


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Savis Maren
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An Idiot's Guide to Gizmology

Postby Savis Maren on November 13th, 2018, 5:28 am

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89th of Autumn, 518 AV

Wheel and axle.

Savis Maren found the flow of the instructional book to be quite effective. The information was dense, but many of the paces were diagrammatic and the levity for the eye was present enough for her to catch up. Savis turned back towards the previous page after writing her header. She placed pencil onto the page, using the margin to draw miniature renditions of the diagrams present in the books. The margins didn't allow for additional print, lest the page be too heavy for the eye, but she offered herself a compromise. Savis Maren drew each class of lever next to its description and happily called it an effort well done with that.

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Once Savis completed her representation, she moved on to the header she'd made, shifting her attention to Gears and Gizmos: Principles of Gadgeteering with an eagerness welling about her. It was difficult to imagine why it was so difficult for her to work on this before, but she supposed all came its time. Particularly when there's an unlimited quantity of it, she mused before moving forward with her treatise on Gadgeteering.

The wheel and axle is a simple machine that involves the use of a wheel that's juxtaposed on an axle (both defined below).The axle is in the center of the wheel, and the two parts work in conjunction to implement rotation as a means of producing mechanical advantage. A hinge or bearing supports the axle, and it is on that hinge that the wheel rotates. Wheel and axles are used to amplify force. This simple machine works similarly to the lever, where the hinge acts as a fulcrum and force is applied to the axle to create work.

Scribe's Note: While these definitions are obvious, they are being defined for the sake of posterity.

Wheel: A circular block of a hard and durable material at whose center has been bored a circular hole.

Axle: A central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear.


As Savis finished writing, she felt that she understood the concept easily enough. After all, unlike the lever, which Savis needed the examples to see futher practical application of, the wheel was its own example. Carriages, carts, automatons... they all used wheels and axles in their design to reduce the force required to move an object.

Interesting that something as basic as a handcart is the combination of two simple machines. Those being the lever and the wheel/axle, she mused before returning to the more complicated parts of her study. Definitions were simple enough, but in order to expand upon her ideas, she needed to properly define every aspect of the machines. That included the inclusion of the relevant equation of force. Silver eyes poured over the text, her land hand operating her charcoal pencil.

"There's no point in using the ideal mechanical advantage equations. There's never an absence of friction," she reasoned.

Mechanical advantage for the wheel and axle is calculated as follows:

MA = F(B)/F(A) = a/b where a and b are the distances between the center of the axle to the edges of the wheel (A) and the axle (B).

Otherwise known as:
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Moving on with her transcription, Savis Maren found that the use of gears relied primarily on the principles of the wheel and axle, a fact she made sure to make mention of.

Machines using gears are the implementation of a combination of toothed wheels which together, as a wheel and axle might be considered a lever, are a compiund lever. The use of toothed gears allows one to expand upon the nature of simple machines, turning them into complex machines.

The Nuit turned the page, making her way onto the next simple machine. The wheel and axle, it seemed, required little explanation in it of itself. However, this machine was sure to be one of the more utilized ones by the undead mage. Perhaps she'd study the Voice Box and Wheels itself to see how gears worked together to form machines well beyond the Nuit's level of understanding.

Savis Maren created no diagrams of the wheel and axle, believing the real world shapes and the numerous examples of the mechanism that she possessed on her person would prove sufficient in her case-by-case studies.

WC: 724


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Savis Maren
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An Idiot's Guide to Gizmology

Postby Savis Maren on November 13th, 2018, 5:47 am

Image
89th of Autumn, 518 AV

Pulley.

The large diagram on the page showed Savis what the pulley was before she read any sort of word. Of course, the Nuit came into this learning with some idea of what these words meant, but the science of defining them as the six simple machines was new to her. As was the literal definition of each and every one. She was relieved to trudge on with this work, feeling that by establishing a strong, fundamental understanding of these machines she'd eventually prove herself capable of much, much more.

Savis turned the page in the library book, setting it before she began to read. The Nuit's charcoal pencil was running low on point, and so she craped the edge against the table, filing the material to a fine point. Then, when Savis was prepared, she began to define the pulley. Her mind raced ahead of her pencil as she grasped at the material, intent on shaking definition and understanding from words and images.

A pulley is a wheel on an axle or shaft that is designed to support movement and change of direction of a taut cable or belt, she began, defining it in the strictest possible paraphrasing before copying the text from thereon.

Pulleys may utilize groove(s) between flanges around its circumference to keep its rope in line. The utilization of pulleys allows for large forces and can generally support great weight.

Note: A set of pulleys can be assembled so thay they rotate independently on the same axle to form blocks. Two blocks with a rope attached to one pulley and placed through the two pulleys form a block and tackle, which is a compound machine.

There are three different types of pulley systems.

Fixed: An axle mounted in bearings attached to a structure. A fixed pulley changes force's direction on a cable that moves along its circumference.

Movable: An axle in a movable block. A single mobile pulley is supported by two sections of a rope and possessies the mechanical advantage of two.

Compound: A combination of the former two forms the block and tackle, which further increases the mechanical advantage.


The Nuit arched her eyebrows, finding that the book went off on a tangent about the application of pulleys. Were single, simple pulleys so rare in the world that the simple machine's examples are actually complex machines?

Interesting, she mused before continuing on to the technical aspects of the pulley. The Nuit continued on, drawing diagrams of each of the pulleys before she continued on to the grit of demonstrating the mechanical advantage of this simple machine.

MA = W/T = n. The ratio of the load to the input force is the mechanical advantage. W represents the load, where n is the number of sections of rope used to support the pulley system. T equates to tension.

Savis looked over the page one final time, noticing that her transcription skipped over several sections of text, though in truth, there was little more to show. Pulleys seemed one of the more complicated simple machines and, indeed, bordered on being more complicated mechanisms in it of themselves.

WC: 526


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Savis Maren
Only a little bit dead
 
Posts: 295
Words: 399286
Joined roleplay: July 8th, 2018, 11:49 am
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An Idiot's Guide to Gizmology

Postby Savis Maren on November 14th, 2018, 10:20 pm

Image
89th of Autumn, 518 AV

Inclined plane.

To Savis Maren, as she read on about the inclined plane, there hardly seemed to be anything to note. This sort of 'machine' seemed like anything but. The diagrams represented it as a ramp, and indeed, one of the names for the inclined plane was the ramp. However, it was noteworthy for the Nuit to document the knowledge of the ramp for posterity.

Nothing will be left ignored. Knowing the math and conceptualization of implementing ramps, however, is more for an architect than a gadgeteer. Perhaps both disciplines make use of the six simple machines for their craft? she asked herself before moving her charcoal pencil and beginning to take notes properly.

The inclined plane works on the principle that it requires less force to move an object diagonally than it does straight into the air. The consequence of this lesser force required, however, is that the object must travel a greater distance and thus, the same amount of work is required to perform both actions. The difference between using a ramp and lifting lies in the key distinction that less force over a greater distance allows for a weaker, sustained force, such as heaving or pushing, to replace the much more strenuous task of lifting, the Nuit noted.

Out of the four machines Savis Maren took notes of thus far, it seemed to her that the study of the ramp was the most arbitrary. She'd commissioned the tool, Wheels, with the mountainous terrain in mind. It seemed that the ramp required the least expertise to make use of, and is perhaps the simplest of the simplest machines. The Nuit decided that the input/output math of the inclined plane was unnecessary to document, for she saw it as irrelevant to the pursuit of Gadgeteering in it of itself. Perhaps, some day, she'd come to regret the omission, but the Bharani Library was only a walk away from her anyway.

Moving on... she thought, pursing her lips as she flipped the page. Admittedly, the pages detailing the inclined plane were shorter and more laden with diagrams than the other three she'd perused.

Wedges.

The diagram presented here caused Savis to audibly groan with exasperation. It looked just like the inclined plane! If she turned the page, she noted the slight dissimilarities, from the fully triangular shape of the tool from the way the third line wasn't represented by the ground. She withheld further expression of her disappointment and instead began to read, allowing a measure of curiosity to manifest within her as she began to write.

The wedge is a portable inclined plane, where mechanical advantage is created by applying force to the blunt end to drive the point between two surfaces and thus, separate them.

So... like a knife? Savis considered the differences between the ramp and wedge, finding that the tool was perhaps more different than she'd initially thought. The uses were rooted entirely in the idea that having a movable wedge to apply forces to different objects could create mechanical advantage in different ways. This the Nuit understood, and she was glad to have not immediately dismissed the wedge as simple another ramp.

The six simple machines are all innately related, it seems. Variations, or additions, or simply one part into the other. Is that the utility that makes them so utterly necessary to Gadgeteering? The combination of simple machines? Granted, complex or compound machines were described earlier as such... perhaps this information isn't as given as one might think, she mused, at last allowing herself to relax and push more deeply into the subject material.

The equation for mechanical advantage seemed simpel enough for the Nuit, and she wrote this one down for the sake of posterity.

Image

She translated the equation underneath, noting its parts as she had in her previous mechanical advantage demonstrations.

Mechanical Advantage = Weight of the Block/Horizontal Force = 1/tangent of the angle a.

Satisfied with her case study of the wedge, Savis flipped the page and found a delighted gasp escaping her. She turned the page in her journal as well, eager to indulge in this bit of education, as it was so very vital to her understanding as a Gadgeteer.

To be Continued...

WC: 723

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Savis Maren
Only a little bit dead
 
Posts: 295
Words: 399286
Joined roleplay: July 8th, 2018, 11:49 am
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An Idiot's Guide to Gizmology

Postby Madeira Dusk on December 1st, 2018, 1:48 am

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Grades Awarded!

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Savis Maren

Skills
  • Copying: 5xp
  • Observation: 1xp
  • Research: 5xp
  • Gadgeteering: 5xp
  • Mathematics: 4xp
  • Drawing: 2xp
  • Logic: 3xp

Lores
  • Gadgeteering: mechanical advantage
  • Gadgeteering: basics of levers and leverage
  • Mathematics: equation to determine mechanical advantage of leverage
  • Gadgeteering: basic terminology
  • Gadgeteering: wheel and axle
  • Mathematics: mechanical advantage for the wheel and axle
  • Gadgeteering: wheel and pulley
  • Gadgeteering: type of pulley systems- fixed, movable, compound
  • Mathematics: calculating mechanical advantage for pulley system
  • Gadgeteering: inclined plane
  • Gadgeteering: wedges
  • Mathematics: mechanical advantage for wedge

Awards & Retribution
+Leather-bound blank book: -3ki
+10 charcoal sticks: -5jk

Notes
I feel a little smarter for having read that. <3
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Madeira Dusk
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