• nilloc
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    1 year ago

    I was always under the impression that large bearing surfaces are much less efficient than small bearings in large wheels. It’d be neat if they figured out a maglev style bearing, but I think cold supercontuctors would be required

    There is a lot more friction surface, which is why we’ve never really reinvented the wheel.

    • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My thought is just that the bearings are moving so much faster in a configuration like this. Normal bearings that are close to the hub usually have an inside diameter around 20-30 mm (for motorcycles, at least) and they only move as fast as the center of the wheel.