Making Non-Electric Circuits With Computer Logic

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[@Ryush806]

“Every model is wrong, but some are useful” is one of my all time favorite sayings. I model various systems for work whether that’s logistics, commodity movements/prices, or industrial chemical processes (ChE by degree). Every single model is wrong in some way (ESPECIALLY if using some sort of machine learning) but they all get the job done just fine.

[@skydivenext]

Y

[@skydivenext]

Ew a ChE degree the egos is smelly in here

[@Ryush806]

@@skydivenext you have a problem with my degree?

[@BritishEngineer]

⁠​⁠@@Ryush806I would expect a fellow engineer to be of a higher level than engaging in fights in a KZbin comments section. It’s the epitome of immaturity I would only expect from an under sixteen year old to present. And you give both chemical engineering and yourself a bad name.

[@Ryush806]

@@BritishEngineer I was asking if the problem was my degree specifically or something else I said that engendered the ad hominem attack. Not sure how that was read as engaging in a fight unless you’re constantly looking for one.

[@rasmus1600]

I'll take a wild guess, but in 2 months some madman is playing Doom on this thing.

[@NandoP07]

I'm more than sure that it can run it

[@vibaj16]

unfortunately I think circuits that large would have so much resistance that the strength of the chains would become a bottleneck (a battery strong enough to power the circuit would just break the chains)

[@Temperans]

​@@vibaj16alternatively you would need so many of these cirquits that you would just be making a room sized computer

[@unicod3r]

Making a CPU out of chains is extremely hard. Not only the resistance will be so high that you would need to apply an insane amount of force (probably more than the chain can handle), but it's also likely to be larger than 50 average rooms. yeah, processors are giant if we go to the macro level

[@unicod3r]

Oh, also inertia of the chain wouldn't allow it to run anywhere near DOOM's minimal processor frequency requirements.

[@prajwaljarali]

Waiting to see @Electroboom experimenting with Spintronics and getting shocked by it.

[@georgesmith4768]

Static electricity is no joke! Just ask a van der graph generator

[@Comrade_YG]

@@georgesmith4768mr boom has already made videos about van de graph and even made one him self

[@mgancarzjr]

I'm imagining small circular saws and tens of thousands of spin volts. Horrors beyond our comprehension.

[@prajwaljarali]

@@mgancarzjr that's too bad.

[@ghyslainabel]

I am sure he can find a way to shock himself with it.

[@vaakdemandante8772]

I have this set & the extensions and I confirm it's super fun to build and operate those circuits! Oh, and it's actually humbling to realize how easy it is to just "burn" a circuit by designing one that when switched on just destroys itself because you forgot to add resistance on every path and it short circuits dumping all energy at once :)

[@TheActionLab]

haha, yes, I did it multiple times accidentally, and it is quite surprising. Luckily they have the breaker inside the "battery"

[@cosmosgames3202]

No​@@RepentandbelieveinJesusChrist5

[@8bitarmory846]

@@RepentandbelieveinJesusChrist5 take your spam somewhere else

[@jamesclerkmaxwell8020]

Mind blowing fact : While he was fiddling with Maxwell's equations, J. H. Poynting showed that in an electric circuit, the energy is conveyed ***outside*** the wire. The wire only acts as a "road" guiding the energy form the battery to the load. The EM activity (E & B fields) is maximal outside the wire. The only energy appearing inside the wire is waste heat. This irrefutable fact collides head-on with most of our analogies about electricity (edit : for practical purposes, the chain analogy used by Action Lab is indeed possibly the best analogy available (far better than electron being "small marbles of matter" endowed with kinetic energy) , and the Spintronic toys are great and fantastic way to "grasp" electricity- I wholeheartedly recommend them. We must just remember that reality is even more mysterious- as the energy seems to travel in what we call a "vacuum")

[@codetech5598]

Since it is obvious that the magnetic field is outside the wire, it should be expected that the electric field is also outside. C P Steinmetz made that point also.

[@indianhistorybuff]

There was a veritasium video on it too with some controversy as well

[@MitzvosGolem1]

Skin effect.

[@jamesclerkmaxwell8020]

@@MitzvosGolem1 This is not skin effect. Skin effect happens only in AC. The Poynting vector shows that energy travels outside the wire both in DC and AC scenarios

[@AbhishekKumar-el7vo]

It is well known fact but that energy releases itself in the electrical load only by accelerating the mobile charges in the load. Even the setting up and propagation of those fields are dependent and closely linked to the moving charges in the conductor. Veritasium's video on the topic has a little fact laced in a lot of inaccurate and wrong reasons and examples wrapped around it.

[@glenncurry3041]

It's come full circle! I'm so old I was taught multivibrators using transistors as switches before CPUs existed. Bi- and monostable versions. The base level circuits logic gates are based on. I learned as they were put together on chips. 555, ... I literally designed those gates to a component level and board design. But once it got to hundreds and then thousands of them on a CPU chip, I decided to just sell the stuff instead! 🙂 But to see mechanical devices in place of those simple transistor circuits is going full circle back for me. And glad you gave an h/t to Veritasium's video that started a long, long, long... 🙂

[@StopItGarrison]

Old!

[@glenncurry3041]

@@StopItGarrison And experienced. 🙂

[@pitviper7924]

Working in the medical engineering field for many years, there were many devices that stand out. The Monaghan 225 ventilator was a fluidics only ventilator. Absolutely no electronics. The internal modules were the sensors and various logic devices, all powered by air and O2. It would not be affected by EMF.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

I remember being fascinated about Charles Babbage who made a mechanical computer back in the 1800s. A full scale one was actually built and it works!

[@rickwheeler6811]

What a fantastic visual. As an electronics instructor this would be a great tool. Thanks for sharing

[@protoborg]

Nope. This gives a completely incorrect impression of how logic and circuitry works. I hope you are never stupid enough to use this teach.

[@jamesfanaticgames]

The real surprising thing about this video is the amount of times i had to pause to understand what was going in ;D

[@axrief]

i think the title should be "Making Computer Logic With Non-Electric Circuits"

[@daliasprints9798]

I suspect the really hard part of building a computer this way, aside from cost & labor, would be timing. As folks who've worked with FPGAs know, things go very wrong if you can't predict the delays for signals to get from one point in the circuit to another. With mechanical backlash that seems like it becomes a lot harder.

[@CuulX]

Yes and no. You can just assume more delays and wait for those longer, slowing down your computation until it is reliable.

[@dylanmcshane9976]

FANTASTIC demonstration.

[@pantonbleu7612]

Circuits have always been a mystery to me. It's great how simply you explained it here. 👍👍👍👍

[@anaphylastiks]

This is really cool. What a great way to teach people how to understand electronics. So cool to actually visualise it like that. I will definitely be buying one of their products.

[@ransomxvi]

We need even more videos about this. I first saw this product on Steve Mould, but I always wanted expansion on the topic. I like your use of the blue links in the chain. Truth tables are also a neat feature to show. I love how using real physical analogies can explain very low level computing. We often forget that the word Computer = a device that can compute logic through gates exactly like this.

[@zizoukurosaki7100]

Man… felt like you read ma mind when you mentioned Veritasium haha. But its great that you highlighted that, its always amazing to see fellows respect and value each other opinion, and helps us little nerds keep the wires connected properly in our brains 😂

[@user-by2io7zv2t]

I have a hypothesis: The magnetic field around wires in spintronics is represented by centrifugal force

[@puskajussi37]

How so?

[@user-by2io7zv2t]

@@puskajussi37 inductor in electronics creates a magnetic field, and an inductor in spintronics uses centrifugal force to create inertia.

[@puskajussi37]

@@user-by2io7zv2t Centrifugal force is not really at play here, self-inductance is just represented by the linear and angular momentum of the chain and components, including in the spintronics version of inductor as a component.

[@freetolook3727]

Back in the sixties, I was given a toy computer that you assembled called Digicomp. It was plastic gears and metal poles to hold it together. The idea was based on the first large main frame computers and you would input switches, turn the gears and an answer would crank out.

[@kindlin]

That sounds ridiculous and I love it.

[@protoborg]

@@kindlinIt sounds ridiculously stupid.

[@freetolook3727]

Ridiculous but absolutely true!. I wish I still had it. I think the reasoning was based on the Babbit computing system only in miniature. I sort of got it to work. The problem was I was only eleven, had no idea how it was supposed to be assembled despite the instructions, no idea what the purpose was and absolutely no help. It would be a collectors item now!

[@Toobula]

I had one, but it was never quite clear to me how it worked.

[@utkarsh2992]

this video just made my day

[@LucidPoseidon]

I think I might have to buy this set at some point. Clockwork stuff makes me go feral. To see such a magnificent series of cogs and gears running wild to achieve a singular purpose is just blissful.

[@EvilTim1911]

Wise words at the end. That video by Veritasium really made me rethink electricity but it's so useful to have a good intuitive analog

[@sagarchourasiya529]

best way to understand electrical engineering for mechanical students

[@jaapvanklaveren6929]

Thanks for your video. 40 years ago I built logic circuits with air at Festo Pneumatic. Now almost all of that has been replaced by the PLC. It is still used in potentially explosive atmospheres.

[@mkozdogan]

In a given subject, an individual's expertise should be measured by their ability to communicate it easily, simply, and clearly. Regardless of the theory we teach, without imparting this skill, understanding remains elusive. I applaud this sentiment and the type of explanation.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

Would have liked to have heard mention of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine (which he never got to build, but some modern researchers are planning to do, having seen that replicas of his simpler Difference Engine actually work).

[@zellfaze]

I thought that was where he was going with this video to be honest.

[@Sebbir]

Same

[@JawnLam]

SpinTronics and Turing Tumble are two of my all time favorite learning games.

[@SimonBrisbane]

We can no longer say this is the logic of all computers. We now have quantum computers which are not just on or off.

[@Ernzt8]

What a great kit!

[@notagamer8782]

Old aviation equipment used very complex mechanical calculators for computing things like airspeed. Not analogous to these spintronics but mechanical calculators are a real thing

[@b43xoit]

That's right and the channel Curious Marc is covering a restoration of a Bendix Air Data computer.

[@MathewSan_]

Great video 👍

[@PPYTAO]

This was the first time I've heard this explanation, and whilst I can appreciate it's wrongness, it has helped clarify my mental model of electronics somewhat.

[@deadly_dave]

@6:48 If you want to be super pedantic, you only need the NAND & the NOR. You can make the NOT by tying the two inputs of either the NAND & the NOR together. And if you want to get really mad, you can make the NOR from 4 NANDs (tie the inputs of the first two NANDs together (ie. make them into NOT gates) and use them as the inputs to the third NAND. Finally tie the inputs of the fourth NAND and the output of the third NAND together) So really you can build any logic circuit out of just NAND gates.

[@rezaamini4791]

You can use water flow in pipes too

[@stevenmayhew3944]

I remember when learning semiconductor electronics, that I learned about "holes" conducting from positive to negative, which is not exactly true. What happens is that electrons in the valence band jump toward an empty spot, leaving a new empty spot in the process as they try to move from negative to positive, causing the apparent movement of the empty spots, called "holes". But for the sake of argument, conduction band electrons move from negative to positive, and "holes" move from positive to negative.

[@trevorclinton2573]

The electron holes are almost as real as the dressed electrons in that band. The dressed electron has a real particle at its core, but would have negative effective mass. The hole is has positive effective mass but is not a dressed version of a real electron.

[@kindlin]

Holes even have apparent mass and charge. They are, for intents and purposes, real particles. Well, until you try and collide them and you get nada.

[@kartavayaranjankumar4509]

It just destroyed my mind, sir I really request you if you can make a full set explanation video about it. I really want to know but i don't think anything will be equal to your beautiful explanation

[@luthfinashi5558]

Funny thing is spintronic sometimes used to describe electric phenomenon which can be modified by spin manipulation. Example by changing electron spin you can change the circuit resistance.

[@JohnBender1313]

I really wished I had this toy/tool as a kid. I love science but always had the hardest time grasping practical electrical engineering. Like I could never figure out the electronic science sets as a kid. The rest I nailed. And this would've helped me visualize it so much instead of looking at those dang maze of diagrams.

[@user-by2io7zv2t]

I made an XOR gate in the spintronics simulator.

[@nHans]

True, Veritasium clearly doesn't see the value of using abstraction and simplified models in solving practical engineering problems. Ironically, while debunking the chain-of-balls model of current flow, Derek himself forgot that electrons are not really particles, but are quantum field fluctuations. Which, in turn, could be vibrating one-dimensional strings. But all that is irrelevant when designing electrical and electronic circuits. In fact, we don't even consider individual electrons; we model electricity as the flow of a charged fluid-a continuum-and do calculations accordingly.

[@protoborg]

Electrons are NOT quantum field fluctuations. There is no such thing as one dimension strings. Quantum physics is a fucking joke! Electrons ARE particles!

[@user-ce7ic1ze2u]

Man this would’ve helped me BIG TIME for electric circuits in AP Physics 1!

[@MattH-wg7ou]

But seriously I think this is such a great idea! I wish I had this when I was a kid, I would have LOVED it! Well...still now also. But it would have helped me understand this stuff much earlier!

[@737WRC_PLAYSS]

Action Lab the best

[@DynatoMc]

This is mind blowing 🤯

[@litapd311]

as soon as i saw the chain analogy i was wondering if you were gonna mention the veritasium video lol. but as you pointed out, still a useful analogy

[@gscotb]

Look up the Mk 1 Fire Control Computer. It was an analog device that used the concepts explained in this vid.

[@pyglik2296]

I think this set really shines at simulating analog electrical circuts. Basicaly, you can model electricity with a mechanical system because you have only three types of base elements: proportional (friction/resistance), integrating (mass/inductance) and differentiating (spring/capacitance). What's also interesting, is that inductors and capacitors switch their roles if instead of input voltage, you consider input current.

[@protoborg]

Wow. You are just wrong.

[@Viki-zo1bc]

Imagine the size and complexity of an i9 processor built with these.

[@Furiends]

Note that the reason chains model electric circuits so well is because that's how we invented them. Circuits are designed to be predictable and reproducible which limits the more exotic aspects of electricity like field interactions which become a thing in wireless technology.

[@tylerduncan5908]

Technically, NAND is Turing complete, since you can use it to make every other logic gate, so you only need that one.

[@protoborg]

No you can't. You need AND and OR as well, genius!

[@serenecereal5167]

correct way to phrase it would be to say that NAND is functionally complete, although using it as the only gateway in this mechanical representation would be challenging xD

[@DinushaJayaranga]

Wow thank you

[@killrade4434]

Didnt Steve Mould do a video about a this a year ago? I thought it looked familiar as soon as i seen the thumbnail. Maybe one day you two could do a collaboration about something like this video.

[@shadamethyst1258]

One amazing thing you missed about this model is that you showed the core reason why computers get hot: when you have a NOT gate (alone or in a more complex circuit), then in one of the states you have to let current through to the ground. This is shown as your gears spinning, and the generator consuming its thread.

[@What_The_Fuck_Did_I_Just_Watch]

THE VISUAL IS ILLUSION UNDERRATED❗️💛💛💛

[@alex_squeezebox]

They should absolutely teach this in schools...

[@protoborg]

NO FUCKING WAY!

[@Shy_moai.]

I actually get this for Christmas

[@Chris-bg8mk]

Pretty cool!

[@trev_og_music]

My brain hurts in a good way

[@tomholroyd7519]

There are different ways of getting a 3-valued logic. You could have pairs of inputs, which is actually 4 valued if the underlying circuit is binary, but you could also have a switch that is either on, off, or partially on. I wonder if you can do that with spintronics

[@normalchannel2185]

thats the quantum gates right

[@puckyMaXxx]

Sorry but elaborate please. Even I understood how quantum bit(s) logic works, what is "partially on"? I know and quite understood how quantum logic had such like "half value" but "interference" is still a big problem rather than just accepting those chain & tube model as simplification how electric field works.

[@westonding8953]

It actually kind of does coincide with Veritasium’s video as the energy technically only flows one direction.

[@JasonTabile]

So, a complicated mechanical watch that is only run by a spring could calculate/tell the time, day, month, year, including leap years, moon phase, a chronometer with split seconds, perpetual calendar, chime the hours, play simple melodies, can tell sunrise and sunsets, can tell when to celebrate Easter/Passover, sympathetic resonance, measure temperature, (and there is also a resistor when you run the minute repeater) among many things. The only off-logic to it is why the heck you pay $1.5 million to strap it on your wrist.

[@haileerose123]

the industrial revolution is when we went from cogwheels to electronics so i think this is a perfect way to learn

[@carlcarlson7654]

My Lego chain is only long enough to go around the little gear on the engine and the other little gear on the back wheel of the 'the batman batcycle'. So it's really short and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make very much electricity like yours. The batcycle is really cool though.

[@DeadBryan]

One interesting machine

[@Yezpahr]

Every Veritasium video is wrong too, but they're still useful and fun as 99% is correct.

[@johnphillips7444]

Wow this was cool.

[@voyagerone9645]

that puzzle mast been at all schools at physics classes of entire world!

[@godzelsa]

I liked how he mentioned veritassium's video. I was thinking about it the time he showed the chain model.

[@bagnon]

Cool that it can be a physical model, but I'd be happy to get a virtual version of this.

[@StevenIngram]

I think Upperstory needs to get one of these kits in the hand of Wintergatan. :D

[@ishmartishtiaq371]

Can you make a video on science behind thermal paste spread and what is most pratical and pattern to put thermal paste

[@wlockuz4467]

I am mind blown. This is the first time electricity has actually made sense to me.

[@YoungGandalf2325]

Thank God someone invented electricity. 🙃

[@zoltanboros8963]

Actually only one of NAND or NOR gate can do anything. It's such a cool stuff.

[@Misc_Identity]

Our ancestors had computer logic built into the city itself.

[@russellzauner]

Looks like someone finally discovered "Computing Mechanisms and Linkages" by Antonin Svoboda.

[@MattCantSpeakIt]

They have a totally free in-browser simulation for it too. So you don't have to spend money on the physical kit, you can do the same with the PC version :P

[@hatespeech203]

I can’t wait to play steam on a clockwork mechanical computer.

[@molag-ballordofdomination2065]

Watch it be the size of a skyscraper

[@Yusso]

Switching the pixels mechanically will be fun :D

[@ommsterlitz1805]

PERFECT 0.1 FPS EXPERIENCE@@Yusso

[@Brunon-bj1hx]

Continuation of spintronics

[@KamiThulak]

Reminds me about the video from codebullet about the software marble calculator he made.

[@user-eo2wl4ku5v]

Steve Mould made an epic video on these things, still I am going to watch this one as well. btw Can we run doom on it. somehow

[@_RUSH_]

You're asking the important questions

[@GCKteamKrispy]

Oh no, Now that you've asked, someone will sure create a computer to run doom

[@user-eo2wl4ku5v]

@@GCKteamKrispymaybe some one already did.

[@saiayushmanpadhy3473]

I love this spintronics thingie..... And I desired it from the day I saw it in Veritasium's vdo ! But the fact that it costs so much, makes me feel sad😢

[@nHans]

01:38 Umm... you _don't_ want to connect an LED directly to a 9V battery-unless, of course, you deliberately want to destroy the LED. 😲

[@DefaultFlame]

Simultaneously silly and cool.

[@Mohsin__Khan]

Ohkay, where were these tools when I was growing up?? 😮‍💨

[@MegaScrewyou]

Very cool. Reminds me of people making electronics in Minecraft

[@cheeseparis1]

I love this. Next you need to have a video sponsored by DeLorean, so that I can buy a Spintronics and go back in time to my school days. Of course I can buy one now, the only thing I would like to create is a computer running Minecraft in which I create a computer that runs KZbin and clicks LIKE on your channel. JK, I already clicked LIKE.

[@pizzainc.1465]

While simple switches would not work, the transistors in act 2 are a way to make the circuit work with multiple logic gates.

[@byeluvby]

i just got my son one of those for christmas

[@vedantshelote4079]

Is this the same thing by which a Minecraft player made a computer in Minecraft with redstone and played Minecraft in Minecraft?

[@Melody_Boi_Piyush]

Now time to see bad apple version of it

[@nogymworkout243]

My professors didn't know how to build logic gates in real life 😂😂

[@DigitalicaEG]

Very niche set, I have no idea how many people would actually be looking for a set like this if they didn’t know about it….

[@bradleyaverick2191]

The arrangement of the axis points looks like where power grid poles might be. 2nd thessalonians chapter 2 might be in order

[@Patiboke]

Water flowing through pipes is also a great analogy for electricity. 👍

[@galev3955]

Swiss clockmakers have entered the chat

[@707abhishek]

my minds blown

[@climate_sentry_123]

We need Steve Mould here

[@wtf235235]

Divider is simply a differential, very similar to the one you have in your car.

[@jayaagrawal2127]

finally you saw this thing :)