How Many Hamsters Does It Take To Pull A Dogsled? 24
cowgin asks:"My coworkers and I were talking about dog sleds and the different type of dogs that pull dog sleds. We also talked about how many dogs there are in a dog sled team. Then I thought in the my usual slashdot manner, "how many hamsters would it take to pull a dog sled?" Unfortunately, I thought aloud. Needless to say that there were many stares (very blank stares). I envision some sort of harness that could be attached to those toy balls that allow the hamster to roam freely. Does anybody have any ideas on how many hamsters it would take to move a dog sled?"
One. (Score:1)
Depends on the hamster (Score:2)
At least we're getting down to serious topics now
What do you mean? (Score:4)
Riced Out Hamsters (Score:1)
How many? (Score:2)
Uhmm... (Score:1)
If you want my respect, give it first...
Possible Solutions... (Score:1)
2) Does anyone else remember that idiot 80s cartoon "Pandamonium" [80scartoons.net]? There were three or four pandas that could come together to form one giant panda? (Perhaps the worst Voltron-inspired ripoff ever.) Anyway, make a similarly stupid cartoon that allows a thousand hamsters to similarly meld into one giant hamster.
3) Several people have pointed out the problem of the hamsters freezing in the cold climate. There's a great solution for this problem: simply begin throwing the frozen hamsters opposite to the direction of travel. Newton's First Law will have you zipping along in no time!
4) There's also the "hamster-fired" furnace idea for a steam powered sled, but I should probably stop...
(Disclaimer: For the humor-impaired, I don't advocate cruelty to hamsters. Frankly, my husky mixed dog is laughing his furry ass off right now about the thought of hamsters as sled pullers, and the ideas are his, not mine.)
Re:How many? (Score:1)
Just one... (Score:1)
Zippy the Wonder Hamster (Score:1)
The question is not how many hamsters would it take, but rather, how would you motivate the hamsters to work, given their rather lethargic nature? I can see my hamster getting worked up about it for about 2 minutes, if a yogurt drop or other tasty treat were involved. Beyond that, best of luck.
Darn antisocial rodent.
At least this isn't Aprils Fool's joke. (Score:1)
In fact, given the global implications, I'm surprised this hasn't been asked before; what with the entire lack of hamster proliferation treaties, anyone could build an army of said sleds and march across the globe.
First off, before dealing with numbers of hamsters at all, you need to decide on what sled you want to use. A good idea would be to use a range of metal and wooden sleds. The type of hamster used is very important, especially if you consider steroid fed 'burn-out' units(i.e. hamsters that are only expected to do one run). The size of sled would depend on what equipment/personell the sled was carrying, and the number of hamsters used would be directly proportional to that weight. This is always measured in metric units(g/kg) because of the terrible 1984 Gerbil powered Hovercar tragedy.
REMEMBER to train your hamsters carfully!!!
They must all run in the same direction and respond to the crack of whip, if pulled in the traditional manner(5-10 lines of hamsters harnessed to the front of the sled, pulling it behind them). If they can't all run in the same direction, they could pull against the harness, trip themselves and the hamsters around them, then be promptly squished by the sled carried on by momentum.
A much better idea is to mount two caterpillar tracks, each full of hamsters, beneath the sled. Stimulus is provided by a small lcd/plasma display mounted at the front of each caterpillar track module, running the hamster.c stimulus program. This is activated by a button press on the sled's control panel. Thus, the vehicle would look like this:
_______|_a________
(________________) b
The vehicle is still considered a sled because, either side of the caterpillar module, b, are two struts that allow the sled to take advantage of any down-hill terrain. The control panel, a, automatically extends the struts when the caterpillar unit is disengaged. Using a series of cogs, wheels and pullies you can reduce the number of hamsters needed. Further reductions can be achieved by using advanced localisation effects in quantum physics, but to do that you'd have to make sure that every journey started at an accelerator such as CERN.
In order to realistically employ a small amount of hamsters, you have to educate them. Genetics would be pivotal here, as the hamsters would practically have to be 'uplifted' to understand the philosphy of things. Then explain to them that, because the sleigh doesn't really exist, any one hamster can pull it alone. Further-more, as long as you think along similar lines, you can reason down even further that the hamster is unecessary to move the non-existant sled, as it too is non-existant and thus you reach the final answer that it takes 0 non-existent hamsters to pull an infinite amount of non-existant sleds.
(It's amazing what you can think of waiting for a program to download on a 56k modem)
8)
Hamsters? Bah (Score:1)
Of course, they'll probably end up jumping off a cliff, but nobody's perfect!
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Approximate the hamsters as spheres... (Score:3)
The other problem is how to give the hamsters the traction they need to pull the sled. The idea of the plastic balls with hamsters inside is a good one, but you would also need some cleats on the balls to let them bit into the snow and give the hamsters purchase.
Several hundred in wheels to power a motor. (Score:1)
The power generated should be nearly equivalent of a Lego Mindstorm motor...the part of delivering the power to create motion is left to the reader, or at least to the next person who replies to this post.
Thus sprach DrQu+xum.
Re:Is that an African or a European dog sled? (Score:2)
I think 1 (one) would suffice, in the case of the sled passenger being Richard Gere.
uhh (Score:1)
Won't someone think of the children! (Score:2)
Levitation and a Discussion (Score:1)
Slashdot : the one forum I hoped I would never have to read the phrase "hamster tushies."
From a purely theoretical standpoint, I would believe hamster levitation would be a more appropriate use of our time and brainpower. Rather than dealing with the energy drains of kinetic friction, whose combined effect (given the surface contact and total mass of the sheer number of cricetus cricetuses required for locomotion) would likely have devastating effects for both sled and hamsters alike, I believe the correct solution would be the proverbial "Santa's Sleigh" method of locomotion -- or, hamster levitation.
(My thanks to the Nijmegen High Field Magnet Laboratory for that summary, and my utter contempt for Slashdot for not having support for SUP/SUB tags, heh).So, since we are in our realm of fantasy, let's (somehow, and disregard our generators' mass or add it to our existing sled's mass) generate a magnetic field of approximately (this is a mere brainfart of a guess, the actual number is likely close, but just as likely off by a few units) 15 Teslas/hamster. Yes, this is an extremely high number that is not currently accessable by portable magnetic generation units (that would fit on a dog sled, say); however, one must understand that hamsters (and their corresponding tushies) are NOT naturally ferromagnetic, thus we resort to molecular magnetism, using each hamster as an appropriate diamagnetic object (and requiring an increased B-field to account for it).
This has its advantages, a small number of which I will enumerate here:
In conclusion, I insist you don't use hamsters for ground-based dogsled locomotion. If you insist on using members of the Rodentia order to assist in your endeavors, I ask that you help advance the science of diamagnetic levitation and protect the poor little bastards from the harsh northern winters, as well.Ryan Bruels
Hamsters and Global Warming (Score:1)
How about snowshoe hares or baby seals?
On the other hand, with the current trends in global warming and projected melting of the polar ice caps, maybe the idea of using hamsters isn't so very far-fetched after all.
Re:It depends... (Score:1)
Re:Is that an African or a European dog sled? (Score:1)
Sir Arthur of Camelot
What is your favorite color?
Blue
What is the average velocity of a hamster pulling a dog sled?
A European or an Afican dog sled?
I don't know that. Ahh!
This may not even be possible. (Score:1)
Above the fact that a hamster sled is a very bad idea in terms of efficiency, and the troubles involved in making thousands of tiny harnesses and attaching them to the sled somehow, there are certain definite things that may preclude this hamster sled from working at all.
1) Surface area/weight. Movement is created from both gravity pushing down on the hamsters and them using it to get friction on the ground, while pushing forwards. Since we are assuming there would be a limit to the number of hamsters you could actually connect to a sled. They may not have the weight to pull it. Even the strongest hampster would simply slip under too much pressure. Unless of course it had some way to cling on to the ground.
2) Motivation/Direction. Unlike dogs, hamsters are not socially pack animals, neither are they as easily trained. Convincing such a large number of creatures to strain themselves in such a task is difficult enough, let alone trying to get them go in the same direction. The natural 'scatter' instinct could leave the sled trapped. In addition to this, hamsters are not known for being all that hard working, unless it applies to chewing a hole in something.
3) Terrain. The most common, and certainly the most effective use of sleds, has always been in a snowy climate. Dogs and other larger animals are usually taller than the snow, hamsters are not. This could lead to several issues that would have to be dealt with. While it would be entertaining to see a sled with no visible source of movement, the hamsters would not find it as amusing, and would also have trouble seeing where they were going, not to mention the stress of tunneling(or leaping) through the snow. Another advantage of being taller is the greater ability to scale tall terrain. If a dog were to encounter a street curb, it could climb up it, while a hamster would have to find a way around.
Scientific Testing:
If someone really wanted to find this out without actually doing it, here is my suggestion. First get a sled, a hamster, some lengths of string, and some weights of varying, uh, weight. Then place the sled on the type of terrain you wish to test, but do so near a very small cliff or on a table. Attaching the weight to the sled, hang the weight over the edge, add weights until they move the sled at the desired speed. Then try a similar test with a hamster. Be sure that the hamster weighs more then then the weight to prevent flying hamsters (Note: always prevent flying hamsters!). Lighten the weights on the hamster until it can pull it at the desired speed. Then devide the finished weight of the first weight, by the final weight of the second weight. This will yeld the correct answer!
Is that an African or a European dog sled? (Score:1)
Dogsled? (Score:1)