3 ms·

No, because the plastic gears connected to the drive wheel would snap under the immense torque.

• omginternets 6y ago
  Right, sure. In my mind, I was more interested in the relationship between gear-ratios, torque and the displacement of weight. What if the motor gears were infinitely strong? That is: is the power output of a small electric motor theoretically sufficient to drive a tank up a hill with an arbitrarily large gear ratio?
  • rland 6y ago
    Certainly. It would just happen arbitrarily slowly. (And, at that scale, other factors would come into play; the soil would deform under the wheels of the tank before it moved any distance, probably)
  • simias 6y ago
    You can trade torque for speed basically. So yes. "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world". That being said it would be so slow that you'd probably break something before you've moved a millimeter. The same Youtube channel demonstrates how to use gear reduction to increase torque and bend a steel bar with legos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRn5waE0qfk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRn5waE0qfk
  • Someone 6y ago
    Yes. it would be equivalent to Archimedes’ claim “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes#The_Lever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes#The_Lever)