> Can someone explain the law of physics that allows all arcade machines
> on a trailer to find the tightest, most efficient and compact assembly?
> I thought the law of entropy would cause all things to become more
> disordered.
Entropy still holds, but there are other things at play here. The
natural tendancy of systems is to try and achieve their minimum
energy configuration (that is, potential energy = 0). When you draw
the games together there is still some residual potential energy
in the assembly due to the static friction at the floor/game interface
and the distance (very small, even microscopic) between the games.
Practically speaking, driving down the road reduces this static friction (really
it's quasi-static now) and allows the system to achieve an even lower potential
energy (loosening the straps). At some point, the potential energy contained in
the compression of the games against each other will be the same as the
potential energy stored in the tiedown. After achieving this equilibrium
condition,
there will be no more loosening of the tiedowns (ignoring creep and any
viscoelastic effects).
If you aren't using a tiedown and these things are still bunching together,
then that's just weird. In theory if there are no tiedowns and the bed of your
trailer was infinitely large, then the games would eventually be randomly
distributed
throughout the Universe (entropy), thus making them significantly harder to find
(like Vectorbeam Star Hawk).
Alex
http://www.elektronforge.com
ayeckley@elektronforge.com
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Received on Wed Mar 7 19:06:34 2001
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