How the Geneva Drive (the mechanical step that makes the second hand on a clock work by turning constant rotation into intermittent motion) works.
Oh snap!
As an engineer, this makes me happy.
If only one loop of this gif were equal to one second…
easy peasy
watching this while listening to a clock ticking is the best decision i have ever made
You may like this amazing web page then: https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/ It’s a full break down of how a mechanical watch works, every single part including a complication. Every diagram is interactive and beautifully put together. It’s a fantastic read, fun to play with and really informative.
Seconding this recommendation, and in fact this person’s entire blog: he has multiple of these explainers and they’re all good.
In particular, if you’re a programmer who finds floating point numbers to be exotic dark magic, I strongly recommend his Exposing Floating Point post. There are many guides/tutorials on floating point arithmetic out there but IMO this is the best one and makes them really not seem so difficult by the end of it (or at least, all their counterintuitive behavior now makes sense).
