tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638314129554222223.post597303284253625289..comments2024-03-01T06:47:26.665-08:00Comments on WriterOfMinds: Artificial Muscles Actuating ThingsWriterOfMindshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03848533877998707168noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638314129554222223.post-44366472722854966242016-01-02T09:18:05.586-08:002016-01-02T09:18:05.586-08:00To make the muscles, you have to wind them in two ...To make the muscles, you have to wind them in two different ways before annealing them. First, you just twist the nylon -- I'll call that the primary winding. Then you coil the nylon around a rod (or, if you keep twisting it long enough, it will start to coil itself up like an old telephone cord). I'll call that the secondary winding. If you make the secondary winding go in the same direction as the primary winding, that's a homochiral muscle; if you make the secondary winding go in the opposite direction, that's a heterochiral muscle. When you heat the homochiral ones, they contract (the coils move closer together), but the heterochiral ones expand when heated (the coils move farther apart).<br /><br />Imagine making these by connecting the nylon line to a spinning motor. Suppose you spin the motor clockwise to twist the line. Then, when it's twisted enough, you wrap the line around a rod in a clockwise direction. You'd get a homochiral muscle. If you coiled it counter-clockwise instead, you'd get a heterochiral muscle. Hopefully I will have some photos to explain all of this better in the near future.<br /><br />You can tell you have a homochiral muscle if the secondary coils want to lie very close to each other on the rod, and it takes some force to pull them apart with your fingers. If they seem to be pushing each other apart, you've made a heterochiral muscle instead.WriterOfMindshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03848533877998707168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638314129554222223.post-36080592343235374562016-01-02T06:57:02.313-08:002016-01-02T06:57:02.313-08:00Could you explain the difference between homo and ...Could you explain the difference between homo and hetero -chiral coils-muscles? How make homo and how hetero muscles?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com