The Bum

That makes some sense to me. The closer the connection between the rods and the center of the crank, the less stroke you would see. That could be set on a hydraulic system that would move them (connection points) inwards and outwards. The tough part of this would be that it would be damn near impossible to wire those hydraulics up because the crank is constantly spinning.

I say we all try to think of a theoretical solution to this instead of just saying "impossible".... It's a very cool topic. I'm a frosh in mechanical engineering, so its fun to talk about this stuff.

Think about this here... Instead of using hydraulics, have the connection between rods and crank be on tracks with some extremely stong springs (tracks that run from near center of crank towards the standard position) As the crank speeds up, the connection point would naturally move outward (causing larger stroke) This isn't what we want however, but it would cause a change in stroke, which is what we are looking for. If there is anyway to have a counter balance that pulls the connection pointer inward as the cranks rpm speeds up, we would be in great shape.

I'm still a little tipsy, so I'm just letting ideas flow. Let me know what you think.

Honda/NissanFan

I am thinking of changing my major. My major right now is Computer Engineering. I am either going to Electrical Engineering or Mechanical. But I see that Mechanical has all types of physics involved and physics scares me.

The Bum

physics is not the friendliest class in the world. It scares the hell out of me too! What year are you and do you like computer engineering so far?

inspyral

Physics is fun if you can remember equations.

The Bum

yeah, but who wants to do that!? I want to see what happens when you drop a bowling ball off the top of the sears tower onto osama. THATS physics.

inspyral

Energy is conserved.

Honda/NissanFan

I am a sophmore right now. I have 35 credit hours so far. Computer Engineering has too much computer science classes. I hate Java, C++ and all that crap.

Electrical engineering is more of what I like, but circuit boards are a ***** and assembly language is worse than programming language.

1stGenCRXer

Sounds like you want to be a CIS major then...

I'm a junior computer science and math double major with a focus on computer hardware/logic. I already know java, C++, and assembly [which is a fun language if you know how the stack works, only one instruction and the associated schtuff per line without the needless line numbering of basic]. I'm also getting into microprogram sets and MAC assembly. The of course there's the quasi-languages of BASIC, VB, Python, etc... which are all fun and stuff, just not extremely useful unless you're making a visual model.

As far as electrical engineering goes, give me a chip catalog, a perf board and a soldering iron

I'm not sure how this relates to new engine technology other than cars are becoming more and more computer dependent, but if all goes well, I'll be focusing on computer hardware somewhere in the auto industry when I graduate.

Honda/NissanFan

Are you any good with CSC226 (Computer Science - Discreet Math)?? I got a killer take home final.

1stGenCRXer

Discrete was killer, but is really something you should suffer through solo to get the whole benefit. Good luck.