Clue number 2, titled “There is Beauty in Numbers” referenced the image below…
I shared that the image was of particular importance to me. Hint: I need this more than you.
“Care to guess what purpose this image serves?” Hint: It’s about the purpose of the image.
Rutager figured out it was for data contained within the image. I then was forced to disclose that the image was indeed created for the empirical data it provided. He won a “Whoopie in Woolies” award because his answer was damn hot–get it?
So, here we are and inquiring minds are dying of thirst…
CLUE NUMBER 3:
The purpose of the image can be solved with these 4 words;
Sierra, Papa, Zinc, Foxtrot
Moving forward, I will only post when you warm me up–tired of the cold. The ultimate goal* of course is winning a “Whoopie in Woolies” award which only can go to the hottest of the hot.
Oh, you don’t have much time because we are unleashing the CT-17 on Thursday, April 15th. (Most Americans hate that day. We want to give you a reason to like it–clever don’t you think?)
–John
*Last but not least, I have decided that when this is all over, there might be a bigger prize–if you value your time with such disregard as to follow the nonsense and blatant hucksterism in this blog, don’t you think somebody should win something? A Mongolian Death Worm perhaps? Hint: You can’t win if you don’t play.
For those of you who would like some additional visuals, I’ve posted a small application that “moves” the linkage through its motions. You can download it here (Windows only, I’m afraid):
http://www.dendroica.com/Scratch/ct17.exe
Download it, run your virus-checker on it if you wish, and then run it. It will show the range of motion of the magenta, cyan and yellow “arms” of the apparatus. You can use the slider to move the mechanism over its range of motion. You can also use the up/down arrows to change the relative length of the aqua arm.
-Steve
Hmm… the purpose of the image?
Clue #3 has three words from the NATO spelling alphabet (Sierra, Pap, Foxtrot) and one from the Navajo code talkers (Zinc – NATO equivalent is Zulu). Alas, SPZF doesn’t mean much to me, and dropping the Z as the one that doesn’t belong starts to remind me of the sunscreen I’ll need on an upcoming trip…
The image serves to show the space through which a linkage passes. What I’m unclear on is whether it exists to check for clearance or validate the motions are the intended ones.
If nothing else, the image serves the purpose of distracting me from doing my taxes…
Now, where would I want to transform a linear movement into a non-linear movement (or the other way round)?
Yikes! I feel like Butch and Sundance with all these people chasing me… who ARE you guys?
Steve must work for the Pinkerton Detective Agency–he is way to close for comfort…How close? His skin should be starting to itch…
But alas, one part of his kinetic illustration is put together backwards…
-Butch
Bob; The better question is why would I want to transform linear into not linear?
-John
John,
Question, just so my brain doesn’t short circuit…..
With respect to a tool we know,,,,,,
If you take the DJ-1 and open the jaws up, that would be a linear motion. If you then put a (special) bushing in and then proceed with a corkscrew (I did say special bushing) instead of a drill – would you consider that a non-linear motion? Not the downward push – but the path of the tip of the corkscrew.
Steve-
Nice animation, but – what about adding an up and down slider moving the orange element?
-roger
Roger;
Non-linear implies that the parts move in an unequal relationship to each other–in other words, the output is not the same for equal input, mathematically speaking.
Your example is indeed non-linear.
John
Roger,
The reason there’s no orange element in my animation is that I’m not entirely convinced that the orange curve is an “element” per se. Looking at the original artwork, the orange arcs look to me like construction lines: If you were to construct a diagram of the motion using straightedge and compass, you’d strike magenta and yellow arcs from the respective endpoints, then divide the magenta arc into a number of equal segments (I’m considering the magenta element to be the “master” for the sake of discussion). Next, you put an orange pen in your compass and set its radius to the length of the cyan element, and for each segment of the magenta arc, you strike an orange arc. Where that orange arc intersects the yellow arc is the point at which the cyan and yellow elements coincide, for that position of the magenta element.
-Steve
Given the picture and the fact that its 3D, the orange runs up and down and so does the Z axis. Keeping that in mind, I’m assuming that “Sierra, Papa, Zinc, Foxtrot” is a acronym and Zinc stands for the Z axis. So, Special Purpose Z-axis F….
You know, my boss wants me to concentrate on my job!
I was thinking that the “Papa Foxtrot” was “Peter Franks”. Not sure why John added the extra “S” and “Z”. Perhaps to underscore the threat of banishment…
– Peter
I think Steve is right about there, but that the two “pie” pieces are the phantoms and the orange compound curve is the thing they define. I’d also assume that the lines are equally spaced on both the magenta and yellow arcs (so the yellow one is pivoted with the right side further from the viewer). Then you use a compass to draw an arc from each point on the magenta pie. The radius of the arc is shown by the blue line. After you’ve drawn an arc from each point on the magenta pie, you get the orange surface. So really what he’s done is decompose the complex 3d curve of the orange surface into two intersecting arcs, which would then be easy to feed into a CAM machine. Maybe? I’m not really sure how those work, but it’d seem to be much easier to model the orange shape with the 2 mathematically simple “pies” than on it’s own as a 3d formula. The thing I’m confused by is I’d expect a 3d modeling package to take care of all the math for you.
As for the words, well, I guess they could come in handy when using the, um, Commemorative Tool.
Cheers,
Erik
“Sierra, Papa, and Foxtrot” are all part of the phonetic alphabet used in radio transmission, but I don’t know where “Zinc” came from. The phonetic word for Z is zulu. I have no idea how these are connected to CT-17–I still think it’s connected to the John Deere V99.1!
So Zinc has an atomic weight of 30 which I think represents the degrees of freedom this tool can operate in. Foxtrot is a dance in which the 3 step is one of the foundational patterns. We have 3 points represented in this image and what looks like 30 degrees of rotational freedom in the magenta and yellow elements. If we assume the magenta elemet is fixed in space as the yellow element moves in 3D space (translationally and rotationally), there is a non-linear response generated in the orange element. The result is a complex yet smooth curve generated by the orange element. Where I fail in my analysis is I have no idea how the sierra papa play into this.
Well, Sierra Papa Zinc Foxtrot is an obvious reference to the Sequoia Park Zoo Foundation, but what that has to do with this tool, I have no idea…
-Steve
hmm,
Looking at the words above in a whole fashion,
I believe one needs to take into account the order of the four words
that John gave us above, and then put to the side the morse code equivalent to each radiotelephony phonetic alphabet selection. With the exception of Zinc. (but still hold it’s position)
S Sierra …
P Papa .–.
Zinc (is a transition metal)
F Foxtrot ..-.
so,,,,,,,,,,,,
Sierra = … = Magenta
Papa = .–. = Yellow
Zinc = transition = Cyan
Foxtrot= ..-. = Orange
so,,,,,,,,,,,
Gosh, this did start making sense when I started,
but I haven’t had my second cup of coffee yet!
Ouch,
back to my taxes!
-roger