Can You Build a Car With Square Wheels That Drives Smoothly? (Scrap Mechanic)

What other experiments should we try in Scrap Mechanic?

should be an episode where you test every vanilla blocks hit boxes for a spread sheet so it is never forgotten in future experiments after.

I'm not a math major, but I managed to figure out the issue, and a potential solution. So basically, the issue is that the catenaries used in the video referenced here (0:20) match each other in 90 degree angles instead of the 180 degree angles used by Kan in this video. This 90 degree angle is meant to suit the 90 degree angles that sides of a square create. There are two potential solutions to this problem that I have come up with. The first is to use an appropriate 90 degree round piece in intervals of 1, instead of 2 lined up back to back. If these are rotated relative to the ground, ideally by using them to create a 45 degree "round staircase" and then rotating that entire plane 45 degrees to be parallel with the ground, one can create a surface of 90 degree arcs that sequence together perfectly. This would be ideal given its simplicity and the access Kan has to the glitch welder. If this is not an option, for whatever reason, the secondary solution would be to pretend like the sequence of 180 degree angles are actually only 90 degrees, because that is the only part a wheel is touching in practice. One would create two tangent lines off of each wheel and call one "unit" the distance between the intersection point of two tangent lines on each side of a given wheel. This "unit" must correspond with the side length of the squares used as wheels. While the square wheels will pass through this hypothetical surface, they will not pass through the real life (in scrap mechanic, anyways) surface created by the actual hitboxes of the wheels. One can create an equation that inputs the diameter of the curved surface and outputs the "unit" generated, or the side length of the wheel. Putting this equation through an excel spreadsheet essentially just creates a better version of the spreadsheet Kan used in the start of his video, which did not account for the discrepancy between the 180 degree angles of his wheels and the 90 degree angles of the wheels used in the first solution. This being said, I recommend the first solution, as it is substantially simpler. Always remember: Keep it simple, stupid. (that's not an insult you're still way smarter than I am)

Math with Kan always makes me question math

i can tell kan is an engineer cause he uses pi and 3.14 interchangeably and rounded 0.14 to 0.1

what about using the 4 bearing trick for even number block wheels? (if something is connected to a square of bearings, it will rotate from the center of the 4 bearings.)

if i'm not saying anything stupd and my math is correct, given a wheel diameter of X, you need to place them at a distance of X*0.707 (sin45) and need square of length Xπ/4 checked the first few sizes and i can't find anything really good, with diameter 9 you get a square of 7 but the distance has to be almost 6.4 if you want you could graph it in excel or something, like you already did (at least i think, for 2:41), but sizes likely have to be real big

Mathematically, your best shot within scrap mechanic should be with 14-block cylinders (spaced 10 blocks apart from each other) and 11-block square wheels. Of course you can always go bigger. ;)

You could also try adding parts with slimmer hit boxes for the wheels (like the license plate)

You should try wheels made out of wedges instead to get different values while looking the same.

Similar problems regarding gear meshing where overcome before when tremmel gears using component kits where used. Also, get a half block division with 2 x 45 degree bearings to offset something 0.5 of a block. Sign post tubes have sticky sides & ends BTW

Ooh, this is a really cool idea! maybe some other shaped wheels could be cool to make too

So close! Fun video though, really like random experiments.

I love these experiment videos. The math and just general messing about is fun, can't wait to see more!

The issue with the rounded parts is that SM only supports a few hitbox types. You have basic things like boxes and cylinders, but for complex shapes, your only choice is to use a "convex hull", which can only connect via straight lines, so you can't get a mathematical curve that matches the visuals

at the end of the vid, maybe there's a possibility to spin (the road of) the wheels so slightly along when the car drives over them to manipulate the illusion of what you are after, I don't know.

Now I want to try this in space engineers. Since can mix large and small grids to closer to the size needed

The math works out if you make your “wheel” 1000000 x 1000000 blocks, you have a modded wheel with a radius of 1273239 blocks and you place one every 900316 blocks (they will need to be glitch welded. Or you could use my numbers as a ratio for the next vid?

kAN , I love your voice and joke delivery. Great videos, keep it up!

kAN I love videos like these! Please make more of this I'd gladly watch them.