this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2024
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xkcd

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xkcd #3013: Kedging Cannon (xkcd.com)
submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd
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The real key was inventing the windmill-powered winch.

https://explainxkcd.com/3013/

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In a typical 4-stroke engine, there is a process for resetting the engine between power strokes. The energy for the other three strokes (exhaust, intake, compression) comes from inertia in some sort of flywheel.

The "power stroke" in this system is not the gunpowder. It is the winching in of the cable.

In this system, the cannon is analogous to the flywheel: It merely resets the system between power strokes.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

More specifically:

  • Intake is the insertion of the powder and chain into the cannon
  • compression is the firing of the chain.
  • power, the stroke that powers the vehicle, is the pulling of the chain into the winch system.
  • The exhaust phase is removing the chain from the winch system.