Will it Centrifuge? (Part 1)

What happens when things spend five minutes at 8,500 gravities?

Shall we find out, boys and girls?

_{I was going to do this as a video, but since you can't actually see anything happening inside the centrifuge, I decided that would be boring.}

Comments

[octopuscabbage]

Oh kiteman. How i enjoy thee.

[Kiteman]

Thank thee.

[octopuscabbage]

Centerfugeing applesauce would be cool.

[Sunny124613]

nice,and the toothpaste is cool 5/5 stars

[GorillazMiko]

~~Now we go search for part 0.~~ Cool. +5/5 stars.

[xACIDITYx]

Would it, umm.... Be possible to make a centrifuge out of a bicycle tire and a weedwacker, where the weedwacker holds the tubes and the weedwacker is the motor?

[Kiteman]

Possible? Yes.

Wise? ...._{I'm not so sure}

[xACIDITYx]

And do it all under a garbage can (for safety purposes).

[Kiteman]

The walls of my little centrifuge are half an inch thick and seem to be fibre-reinforced.

Your wackifuge has (potentially) much greater energy stored in the the rotor - I think it could put a sample clean through a garbage can...

[xACIDITYx]

Ehh, I'll use some duct tape or something. I'm not concerned with safety.

[Kiteman]

Er, you should be!

Think what a weed-wacker does to weeds - that's not because the wacker is sharp, just fast.

Scale that up with a bicycle wheel - adding circumerancial speed and momentum, then the wackifuge has the genuine potential to remove limbs in an extremely messy way.

[xACIDITYx]

Yeah, I suppose. I guess I'll be safer, like 2 garbage cans and I'll hide behind a brick wall. That seems safe enough...

[Kiteman]

Add a remote-switch and I'll stop worrying that my projects have inspired you to bodily mutilation.

[technodude92]

thats what disclaimers are for

[xACIDITYx]

Okay. I'll be safe.

[Gjdj3]

I liked this a lot. It was interesting and showed some of the cool effects of a centrifuge. Also, (not that my opinion matters much, I'm 14!) I disagree with some of the other posts that state this is "boring" or useless. I think it's a great way to show some basic results from an experiment. I liked it. Oh, and where can I get a centrifuge? Or are they very expensive?

[Kiteman]

Thank you, and lack of age doesn't make your opinion irrelavent, lack of intelligence does (so you're fine)> The centrifuge costs about 80GBP, and the wall-wart was another seven. There are posts further down (May 5th) where I posted links to an online store.

[Gjdj3]

Thanks. I totally missed the links. I'd like to do some experiments using one of these so... I guess it's time to start saving up money!

[Kiteman]

Or you could keep an eye out for Killerjackalope's "How to make a centrifuge" 'ible he has in the pipeline.

[Gjdj3]

Sounds promising. Centrifuges are really cool so I'm excited to start working with one!

[Kiteman]

_{(Where on Earth did that ">" come from?)}

[Lithium Rain]

I like it. It's not poorly thought out, it's succinct. Your bad slideshows( and instructables) are the ones where the writer just says everything he can think of and posts every picture he took that week, no matter how boring or irrelevant.

[Lithium Rain]

Whoops, I didn't mean your bad slideshows as if you make bad ones, it was just a figure of speech...

[Kiteman]

It's OK, I got what you meant.

[Lithium Rain]

Ha! This is like "will it blend?"...

[rc jedi]

cool! build a LARGE centrifuge and disguise it as an elevator. separates the gold from the chaff. "Did you bring your dramamine?

[dchall8]

I was going to do this as a video, but since you can't actually see anything happening inside the centrifuge, I decided that would be boring.

But it did not occur to you that a series of pictures, unexplained pictures, would be boring also? Maybe it's just me but I'm the kind of guy who likes to read text about what you did, what equipment you used, where you found the equipment, what materials you tested, where you found them (if they were not found around the house), why you tested those objects and materials, and what the results were.

Okay, while I was writing this I noticed that each picture has a a very subtle caption written in nearly invisible ink and 4-point font. I still can't give you any points. I like paragraphs.

Obviously by reading the other comments this project has some appeal. I think if you were to write this up properly and dispense with the gimmicky slide show, you would have a much better Instructable.

[Kiteman]

Except it's not an instructable, it's a slideshow. I do know how to write a proper Instructable.

Slideshows are not instructables, they are pictures of things that have been done (although, it's been so long since you wrote an 'ible, maybe you missed the introduction of the new formats?). They don't need lots of explanations, especially when they're written for those members with that certain sense of fun that seems to have escaped you today. This isn't a "how to", it's just the results of a few casual experiments, stemming from a forum thread. Maybe it's time you started taking part in the whole community, then you wouldn't waste your time typing scads of unnecessary criticism?

Sorry you don't like the caption text - complain to the management about that one, there are no options available - but I'm crediting the readership with either the education to know what centrifuge and 8,500g mean, or at least the intelligence to be able to ask.

[dchall8]

I see both of us are cranky today. I know you know how to write an Instructable. Yours are some of the best. I was shocked to see such an Instructable as this one with your name on it. Slide shows suck! There. If the management cares for our opinions. They suck. The concept sucks and the tools suck. Given that they suck, at least you used the tools better than most slide shows. Looking for a compliment? That's about as good as it gets today. Sorry I had to take up this space to say that but several things brought me to your Instructable. One was your name, because you write the good ones. Second was that I was the engineering project manager for the redesign and overhaul of the human centrifuge at Brooks AFB in the 1980s. But if I feel I need to update my knowledge of acceleration science, I'll be sure to ask you. My point was that there is nothing here. You have pictures of a can with knobs (presumable a centrifuge) and a lot of little bluish colored cups. As they used to say, "Where's the beef?" or "Show me the money!" If I wanted to replicate your work, how would I do that? Where do I get a centrifuge? Where do I get the blue cups? Are there any precautions to take when running it? (yes there are). Why would I want to have centrifuge? And if your answers send me back to the forum, that's fine. Just provide a brief explanation and a link. The fact that this Instructable was in reply to a forum thread would have made an excellent entry into your introduction to the Instructable/slideshow. Your cryptic intro was a coded message that only those participating in that specific forum entry would benefit from. All I'm saying is that an unexplained slide show is a waste of bandwidth. I expected better from you. Not that I need to justify my Instructables experience to you, but I do participate in the forums. My interest in the forums runs about 90% less than my interest in the creativity found in the Instructables themselves. Please don't reply that you participate more so you are a better Instructables citizen. That's not how it works.

[Kiteman]

Feel better?

[dchall8]

Yeah. You? Looking forward to your next Instructable. Seriously.

[Kiteman]

I am today. Am I allowed to do another slideshow if I explain it better?

[dchall8]

If you did a slide show with an explanation, you might be the very first person in Instructable history to do it. That would be great! With your obvious talent and skill at making this website sing, it would be a pleasure to see what you do.

[Kiteman]

That's next weekend sorted, then...

[darth2o]

Blood, try blood!

[Patrik]

Virgin blood!

... sorry, wrong forum...

[pyro13]

so what exactly does this do? :$

[Kiteman]

It's supposed to be for separating biological samples - DNA and the like.

Since DNA extraction isn't on my school's curriculum (the kids are too young), I decided to subject other things to extreme g-forces...

[fishhead455]

FLATULATIONS--you have given me forty more ideas. great work. 9 starz.

[T3h_Muffinator]

That's awesome! A much more scientific version of "will it blend". I like this one a lot better.

Could you test out a hypothesis or mine? I propose that orienting a (really, really tiny) muffin in a centrifuge would produce a black hole of awesomeness. Basically, if you make it so that the muffin tops (the best parts) inwards, then the centrifugal (or is it centripetal, in this case?) will throw the muffin tops to the bottom of the sample tube at tremendous speeds. The movement of a piece of matter with a Q_a > infinity, or a charge of awesomeness greater than infinity, a such an accelerated pace causes a deficit of awesomeness in the area from which it moved, causing a rip in the awesome-time continuum. Test this around something boring and something awesome. If my theory is correct, putting H₂G₂ on the central axis of the centrifuge and Conrad's Heart of Darkness on the outside of the centrifuge should caused H₂G₂ to turn into something like HoD, and HoD to, most likely, trun into H₂G₂.