If you think that 3D printing is only suitable for benches, key chains and printer parts, you might like the papers by two physicists from Wesleyan University and Gothenburg University. Lord Kelvin-also known as William Thomson-assumed a shape called an isotropic spiral. As the name suggests, the shape looks the same from any angle. Kelvin predicts that this shape will rotate when it sinks into the liquid. turn out to be, 3D printing proves this is wrong. (Actually Toll paper Available. )
Scientists are only now beginning to refute a 150-year-old hypothesis, which seems strange. However, the author of the paper believes that Kelvin may have built these structures—he provided precise instructions—and simply discarded them when they proved incorrect.
However, Kelvin was not completely wrong. The shape of the spiral surface does transmit linear force to the rotation. Simply causing the shape to rotate is not enough. The team intends to try some similar shapes to see if Kelvin can find something.
To be honest-we are not sure that the practical application of this shape may be more than scientific curiosity. But what we are interested in is that 3D printing makes it easier to test things like this, and allows very fast incremental changes to the test shape, which was impossible in the Kelvin era.
Lord Kelvin appeared in the strangest place. We have seen him in areas such as long-distance cables and electrostatic generators.