Motors and art installation

[philBE]

Hello
Sorry if this is not the right place to ask, I really don't know where to ask this question.
I saw an animation that I would like to create in the real world.
This is what I am talking about :

http://49.media.tumblr.com/d474c319442b621f47891d07811e6689/tumblr_no20hkR7qe1sn5m9vo1_500.gif

It is an animated picture (gif).
It has 16 arcs forming a half circle and moving at different speeds.
Could it be done with one motor and gears ?
My first idea was to go for 16 motors and 16 gears, but then I wonder if there might a simpler way.
If someone has an idea or a pointer to information that could help me, I would be very thankful.
Kind regards,
Philippe

 

[GreenGiant117]

as long as each ring stays at the same speed you can use one motor and a bunch of gears, what you are trying to do is basically the same as a clock, but instead of a 60:1 ratio and a 3600:1 ratio (second hand to the minute and hour hand) you want smaller differences in the ratio.

To get started you could find a cheap analog clock that does not have a "ticking" second hand, but a smooth one, and tear that apart to see how the gears work together, this will get you started on how to gear it.

I suspect that it may be easier to drive the outer ring, and have that ring turn a fixed gear that drives the next one in, and then repeat until you get to the inner circle, it is going to be near impossible without a lot of money to get them to sync up perfectly more than the initial time though.