eli5 why is the guillotine blade diagonal?

594 viewsEngineeringOther

I’m guessing bc of friction

In: Engineering

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Energy efficiency/ratios.  Pretend a neck is a perfect circle 10cm in diameter. A horizontal blade will cut the entire neck once it has travelled 10cm. (Top to bottom)  If the blade is at a 45 degree angle the blade will make first contact on the top right side of the circle and will complete the cut once the blade reaches the bottom left. The blade must travel 14.1cm to complete the cut. So at a 45 degree angle you cut 1cm of neck for every 1.41cm of vertical drop of the blade. It’s like speeding the blade up 41%. 

You are viewing 1 out of 7 answers, click here to view all answers.