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The stabilized ‘fish spine’ is the third of a series of spines. They are designed to demonstrate the use of friction based stabilizers and may be used in bigger designs. For an introduction to these stabilizers and how to design them, see here.

This spine differs from the regular spine in that it is symmetrical: it bends both left and right in similar fashion, so that it could be used as the basis for a fish, a lizard, dinosaur, or a crocodile.

It differs from the ‘snake’ spine in that the vertebra are shorter but wider, and that the sliding axle sticks out somewhat, just as with the regular spine.

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Notice that with the extra friction blocks, the vertebra’s maximum hinge angle is a bit smaller than without.

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A smaller version is also possible:

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August 2024