[HN Gopher] Chain Flinger
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       Chain Flinger
        
       Author : roomey
       Score  : 62 points
       Date   : 2025-12-28 21:56 UTC (6 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nealstephenson.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nealstephenson.substack.com)
        
       | lukebechtel wrote:
       | The chain robot subplot of Seveneves makes a lot more sense now
       | :)
        
         | FrameworkFred wrote:
         | the chain link tech in Seveneves was wild.
         | 
         | as a nearly perfectly uninformed occasional consumer of space-
         | related articles, I can say it makes a lot of sense (to me) why
         | we'd use something like that to move things around the solar
         | system.
        
       | jaggederest wrote:
       | Doesn't even need to be an actual chain:
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_fountain
        
         | skybrian wrote:
         | It's like you keep shooting ammo upward at it and it catches it
         | and throws it down again, hard.
        
       | JKCalhoun wrote:
       | Related (Steve Mould has been fascinated with the centripetal
       | physics of the chain):
       | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcqX4UMXNKEdNBKABT3ZF...
        
         | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
         | This is essentially a powered Mould effect in place of using
         | gravity.
        
       | thom wrote:
       | I got my youngest a ZipString Aracna for Christmas (entirely
       | driven by a tiny cameo in the film Weapons). It is rare that a
       | toy for kids feels magical, but it's been a real hit over the
       | holidays.
        
       | QuadmasterXLII wrote:
       | A related idea is to improve the efficiency of a trebuchet by
       | stringing heavy weighted nodes along the sling line. The biggest
       | one built so far used one 50 pound node on the sling line to
       | launch an 8 pound pumpkin 1500 feet, but the math says it keeps
       | working better as you add more nodes.
       | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ruiMZYTc5HE
        
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       (page generated 2026-01-03 23:02 UTC)