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« on: January 01, 2007, 03:33:57 PM »
Ok, So after getting my new straps from Nintendo, I decided to sit down and do my own bench test to my old Wii strap to determine just how much force it takes to break a Wii Strap.
First of all it's important to tell all incase they don't know is that Force=Mass*Velocity
by scientific standards Force is measured in Newtons, Mass is measured in Kilograms, and Velocity is measured in Meter's per second. I will be referring back to this eqation a lot.
Of course since I only had one strap I could really only do one test. So my test was symple and to the point, determine with gravity pulling on a set amount of mass, how much weight it would take to break the strap so I used empty milk jugs, and after filling 3 (24 pounds) the strap still was not broke, so i had to go find another and strap it to the mess I had already set up. I tell you this only to let you know that the strap set with 24 pounds of weight on it for awhile, I would say 10 min, before adding a final 4 pounds that ended up breaking the strap.
So, 28 Pounds of weight to break the strap.
however, we all know our Wiimote's don't weight that much. I infact never weighed mine but I guessed that it weighed about 1/2 pound (with batteries of course), so to get the strap to break you have to add velocity. I figured that the average person could throw a baseball at 75 mph. For arguement, lets just say they can throw at 100 mph, which is about 44.7 meter's per second. So that means .227 kilograms(about Wiimote Weight) multiplied by 44.7 meter's per second equals 10.1469 newtons. How much force is that? 2.281 pounds of force
So, thrown at 100 mph, when let go, there is 2.281 pounds of force acting on the Wiimote strap.
So why are straps breaking?....We know that it takes 28 pounds to break a strap (which is 124.55 Newtons of force) and at 100 mph, there is only about 10 newtons acting on the strap. But people seem to claim that it broke while throwing them, Well I got great news, cause it seems these people have some really good arms
Which brings me to my last point, since it takes 28 pds (12.7 Kg) of force, which comes out to 124.55 newtons, and a Wiimote only weights .227 Kg. By dividing 124.55 by .227 that comes out to 549.182 meter's per second of speed that a Wiimote is flying out of someone's hand. Ohh, and incase your wondering, thats about 245.5 mph. YES, these people are throwing Wiimotes 2 and 1/2 times the speed pro-baseball players throw at.
So what does this mean? Well, I think it's pretty simple. Any person that tries to say they weren't doing anything too wild when the Wiimote flew out of their hands and the strap broke is...well, LIEING, Or not telling the entire truth. All these cases i've heard of are clear that people wern't using the strap, lost their grip, got mad, took strap in hand, and snapped it, then said it's Nintendo's fault. Ohh ya, another thing. That Wiimote wouldn't go threw a wall if the strap snapped cause there is this thing called "deflection". Meaning that some or most of the energy would be lost when the strap snapped causing it's speed, or energy, to be slowed, and because of this it's tragetory would probley not travel where you aimed it.
Finally, I'm willing to admit some of my figures could be wrong, so if anyone wants to correct me, please feel free.
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