Knovel Reverse Engineers the New Year's Eve Times Square Ball Drop

Calculating the required horsepower for the electric motor driving Times Square's New Year's Eve ball

One of the most well-known traditions representing the New Year's Eve celebration is the ball drop in New York City's Times Square. A very decorative ball made up of thousands of crystals drops down a pole during the final minute of the year. This year's ball has seen many upgrades from its 2007 version- it's three times brighter, double in size and most notably, has increased in weight from 1,100 pounds to 12,000 pounds.

The ball drop occurs via an electric motor which lowers the ball 70 feet over the course of one minute. The weight increase means that more power will need to be supplied from the motor. We did some research on past ball drops and here's what we know: the gearmotor's output shaft must be 6 rpm and the time must be negligible since timing is crucial for the ball drop event. What we don't know is the minimum horsepower needed by an electric motor.

To see the solution: http://www.info.knovel.com/knovelmessages/NYESolution.html

We Go 2.0 (Sort Of)

As you may have noticed, links to our Facebook page and new blog have been added to the EngLib homepage. Any ideas/suggestions/criticisms about either of these new little ventures will be met with a cold stare. Just kidding! Seriously, I hope these actually get a little use, and it's my belief that the more we all contribute, the more useful our web presence will be. Here a few links about what a Facebook page and blog can do: David Lee King's What can you do with a Facebook page? LibrarianInBlack's Ten Social Networking Tips for Libraries iLibrarian points to the Ultimate Blogger Writing Guide

Knovel Enhanced!

From the Knovel Blog:

Knovel has just introduced enhancements to our Interactive Tables. These enhancements make it even easier for Knovel users to work with tabular information. Not only are the tables easier to read, but they also support drag and drop functionally, so users can move columns around, hide rows and basically manipulate data.

Here is a link to the official announcement for more info: http://www.info.knovel.com/knovelmessages/Tablesanncmt120108.html