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08 August 2003

The Ten (or 11) Basic Ways to Make Things Move

by Roger Gilbertson

What follows is a .pdf file of the presentation given on Friday, 18 July 2003 at the Second Annual Citizen Science Conference, in Pasadena, California.

Abstract: What technologies do we have in our 21st Century tool kit for converting electricity into useable motion? Motors and solenoids use electromagnetism to move everything from wall clocks to pin balls, but we have also discovered 9 (or 10) other ways, including piezoelectricity, shape memory effect, electrohydrodynamics, magnetostriction and more - some you will recognize, others you may never have seen or even heard of before.

Hobbyist, robot builder, author and experimenter Roger G. Gilbertson presents a fast paced overview of the basic ways of making motion, with lots of toys and real-world demonstrations of these "magical" phenomena.

Click here to download/read a .pdf version of his presentation.

Roger Gilbertson is President & Cofounder of Mondo-tronics, Inc./RobotStore.com