Title text:
"How does the spring not run out almost immediately?" "We pull it back REALLY far."
Transcript:
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Source: https://xkcd.com/3244/
this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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Bcz springs wear out is my guess. That's the first thing I'd worry about in the design is how many cycles can it handle before performance is degraded. Might be a lot, but even if it's a couple years, people aren't going to be happy when their car performance suddenly drops off right after they finish paying the thing off.
You're probably right, at the same time, a spring that isn't overloaded can usually take an absurd amount of cycles: Just think about how long the suspension on a car typically lasts compared to a lot of other parts.