|
|
From: Bill Arden (no email)
Date: Fri Jul 11 2003 - 00:07:46 EDT
Hi, Marvin -
Yes, I thought along those lines too. My first thought was a mechanical
self-leveling device such as you describe in your second paragraph, but like you I
concluded that it would probably be more trouble than it was worth. So I went
on to the floating idea. While floating a piece of glass in a liquid with a
higher specific gravity that the glass is certainly the purest way to do it, I
thought perhaps a piece of styrofoam just thick enough to float the glass on
water would be simpler to implement <g>
Bill
************************************
Bill, all I did was think about it also, but more in the line of considering
using a flat glass plate floating in a liquid of high specific gravity. I
remember from geology testing of specific gravity of unknowns, that some of the
heavier liquids were quite toxic though. I know there are liquids with a higher
specific gravity than quartz, ~ 2.65.
I wonder if a mechanical pendulum or two-axis leveling system connected to a
reflective optical flat on the top could be (or probably has been) developed.
Sounds terribly heavy though, and large.
Marvin
|