Tuesday, July 1, 2008

One Wheel is Better Than Two


Here's another move in the efficiency direction. The picture is worth a thousand words. There actually are two wheels, just side by side rather than one in front of the other.

The machine balances with gyroscopes and there's no controls other than "on/off". You lean forward, backward, and side to side to accelerate, slow down and turn. An eight-year-old can ride it. Right now, it does a maximum of 15 mph, but the young designer/engineer, Ben Gulak, who has just been accepted at MIT, says he thinks it could eventually be engineered to do a max of 40mph safely.

By the way, it's electric powered.

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