Day 2

Just as with the last challenge - after a beautiful first day, I end up thinking I have a reasonably straightforward task ahead that turns into a nightmare … when there’s only a day, or a day and a half, to sort the whole thing out.

I have a maximum distance of about 3m to let a rock fall; to rotate a pole, to rotate a pulley … which ultimately has to make the lighthouse rotate.

So it needs to fall rea…l…l…y slowly.

When there’s nothing to pull - of course the rock falls really quickly. The more there is to pull - the slower it will go.

I had tried out some other options. I tried to get a heavy rock to pull down a screw on a thread … But there was just too much friction. It wouldn’t fall nicely. Thought about water falling a distance - but it felt like too much energy would be lost just getting paddles to start turning.

The catch with the stone is that you have to use a really huge, heavy rock. The heavier the rock - the more the potential energy - and the more kinetic energy can be released when it falls.

And heavy rocks start to make the axle bend - which increases the friction on its pivots - which “wastes” the energy as heat energy, instead of energy that can be harnessed to rotate the lighthouse.

Hmmm…

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