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Truly Tangent Logo -- what does it mean?

logo paint thicker transparent.png

The logo looks like a modified infinity symbol, which is no coincidence.

The inspiration was my model train layout I built when I was 11 years old

—a figure-8 with crossover capability when traveling in both directions.        

Track.png

But even without any physics education, I knew there was a problem at the TRANSITIONS between the straight and curved track pieces :  The train cars would JERK sideways at that point.

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I would later learn that the train sees an instantaneous acceleration change at that point.

From zero when straight to centripetal acceleration of v^2/r

Sal Kahn can explain that better.

Did you know that JERK is a real physics term? It's the derivative (change) of Acceleration vs Time.

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In my youth, the solution was to lay my own flexible track and create 'softer' transitions.

It also looked much better with fewer splices and more 'true' to how track is placed.

Today, I tried to write an Excel model to continuously reduce the radius of curvature and see what kind of shape I get. It seems like JERK is getting close to minimized here so 'good enough' to trace it in CAD (lower right quadrant of the original Figure-8)

Excel model.png

After drawing the 2D shape, I was wanting more 'depth' of the logo. I finally settled on offsetting the shape in the Z-axis and tilting the camera view up slightly to give the feel of a ribbon. 

A little cleanup in MSPaint and it's done for now.  <---- "Progress over Perfection".

Some day it will be an SVG so I can enlarge cleanly, vinylcut, or eggbot print the logo. 

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*Pro-Tip for those wanting a transparent background-- MSPowerpoint can set a transparent background and then save the picture as a .png file that retains that transparency...MSPaint will not.

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