Get this device (and other variations) here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Moiré Fidget Device
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Moiré Kinetic Wheel: sold as a fidget toy this device has two plastic disks and each has a pattern of curved spokes that can rotate independently and produce interesting illusions of motion via moiré interference effects. Explore constructive and deconstructive interference patterns with this minimalist toy.
Get this and other beautifully crafted math themed tops here:
Fropm Etsy: BUY NOW: The eTOP
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The eTOP: an ellipsoid based on the famous Euler’s constant e, diameter 2” and thickness 2/e”- spinning magnets from the magnetic stirrer induce electric currents to flow in the copper eTOP- these currents then create their own magnetic field which opposes the magnets underneath and pushes the eTOP to spin, producing interesting motion and sound. Credit to astrophysicist Kenneth Brecher, the creator of the eTOP, PhiTOP, and this unique means of using Lenz’s Law to spin it up. This top stands up vertically (when spun with sufficient rotational velocity) due to physics similar to that of the tippe-top. The concave mirror keeps the top from wandering off of magnetic stirrer.
Get this puzzle here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Missing Edge Puzzle Card
See the simiar and amazing: Matsuyama's Puzzle
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Missing Edge Piece Puzzle: fun math involved in the design of this puzzle, which illustrates how the concept of area can challenge our intuitions. Swipe to see the similar and amazing Matsuyama’s Paradox puzzle. A precision crafted puzzle by Jeux Efcé game shop.
Get this chaotic fidget spinner here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Triple Pendulum Spinner
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Triple Pendulum Chaotic Fidget: This interesting spinner is made from stainless steel and features three physical pendulums each mounted with their own low friction bearing. In slow motion one can see the kinetic energy and angular momentum is transferred from one pendulum to another as the entire device rotates, with some spinning rapidly and others rotationally at rest- the intricacies chaotic motion, characterized by extreme sensitivity to initial starting conditions, tiny differences in how the system is released leads to dramatically different outcomes each time.
Well engineered brass spinning toys by SiriusEnigmas
From Etsy: BUY NOW: The PiTOP
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The PiTOP: this beautiful brass cylinder has a radius of 1 inch, a height of 1/π inches, and displays the first 109 digits of π on its face. Spin this disk (best with sound on) and it will demonstrate some very interesting physics involving energy transfer and conservation of angular momentum. The edges of the cylinder are rounded and engineered to exhibit an optimum motion of a “spolling” coin, a motion that combines spinning and rolling (closeup shown in 240fps). As the disk’s angle of inclination decreases the speed of the rolling increases dramatically until the contact point with the mirror is moving in excess of 200mph. From the mind of physicist Ken Brecher, inventor of the PhiTOP. Note also that with the specified height, that the volume of this cylinder is exactly 1 cubic inch!
Create amazing Telsa coil lighning at an affordable price! Please be sure to employ all appropriate safety precautions when utilizing any electrical circuity.
From engineDIY: BUY NOW: Disk Tesla Coil
Click here for similar amazing devices from engineDIY
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Disk Tesla Coil: incredible coronal brush discharges form intricate miniature lightning in this variation of the famous air core double-tuned resonate transformer invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891. In this novel design the coil is created using modern printed circuit board (PCB) technology producing a spiral of many conductive windings, so thin and close together it looks a bit like a gold phonograph record. The 10 cm long sparks are made possible by a very high voltage, but also a very fast discharge of a capacitor, and each lightning flash is accompanied by a dramatic popping sound characteristic of capacitor discharge (shown up close in 240fps slow motion). Powered by a 24V DC supply, this unit is fairly safe due to a low current (mA)- the discharge feels like a light tickle (but don’t touch the electrode- it gets hot).
Get this 3-color laser cut acrylic version here:
From Kadon Enterprises: BUY NOW: Stomachion Puzzle
Also a very nice multicolor acyrlic version here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Stomachion Puzzle
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Learn about the 1998 discovery of the lost writings of Archimedes (and the technology used to recover them) in this TED talk.
Ancient Stomachion Puzzle: the oldest known puzzle, discovered in the writings of the great Greek physicist and mathematician Archimedes from some 2200 years ago. The puzzle is a dissection of a square into 14 polygons, where the areas of each piece are integer multiples of each other (a curious way to slice it up). In 2003 Bill Cutler showed that there are 536 district ways to configure these pieces to make the square (five are shown here), ignoring simple rotations and reflections. Swipe to see the most famous solution, attributed to Archimedes himself, that was found in an ancient manuscript discovered only in 1998- before this date historians knew the name of the puzzle, but no one knew what it looked like. Kate Jones, the maker of this particularly aesthetic version, found that when using only three colors for the polygons, there are only 6 solutions where no two pieces of the same color touch (four solutions shown here).
Own a piece of asteroid- specimens like the one in the video are quite affordable:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Chelyabinsk Meteorite Sample
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Reccomended reading: Wikipedia- Chelyabinsk Superbolide Event
Chelyabinsk Meteorite: on this date eight years ago this piece of rock was in space. This meteorite was part of an asteroid that exploded over Russia in February 2013 as it entered the Earth's atmosphere at 19 km per second (41000mph). An object moving that fast in the atmosphere experiences pressure pushing back many millions of times more than normal, and at an altitude of 30km (97000ft) the asteroid detonated releasing the equivalent of 500 kilotons of TNT. This sample is a few grams of chondrite LL5 meteorite with fusion crust- a small chunk of former asteroid!
These specimens from Pakistan currently available in a wide selection of sizes here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Petrolium Quartz Crystals
Get an inexpensive magnifier with UV LED here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: 40X Jeweler LED UV Magnifier
Caliper type display stands available here (chrome or brass):
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Caliper Display Stand
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Petroleum Inclusions in Quartz: this doubly terminated (pointy at both ends) clear quartz crystal has small chambers filled with petroleum oil and small bubbles of methane gas- trapped within the crystal since its formation about 100 million years ago. Under ultraviolet light the fluorescent oil emits bright blue and green light showing the presence of the many chambers in the crystal, some quite small. These crystals are mainly found and mined from the Zhob Valley in Pakistan.
Find this cube and other rainbow making creations by this artist here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Niji Cubes
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Niji Cube: a stunning kinetic art object constructed from acrylic and thin layers of plastic diffraction grating. Just add a white light source to produce an explosion of vivid colors with these creations by artist Minato Takeo. Here the rainbow spectrum is produced not by refraction like that of a prism, but instead by diffraction, where light waves deconstructively and constuctively interfere. A wonderful object to place on a sunny windowsill or, as in this video, to cast the beam of a flashlight through in a darkened room.
Get one here- five colors to choose from:
From MoMath: BUY NOW: Frabjous Sculpture Puzzle
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Frabjous Geometric Sculpture Puzzle: 30 identical laser cut acrylic pieces interlock into 12 interconnected five point stars (each with a spiral vortex center) in this puzzle based of the Frabjous sculpture by artist and professor of mathematics George Hart (Prof. Hart is now on Instagram, follow him at @george.hart.sculptor to see more of his amazing work.) Note that if one connects the tips of the stars one gets the outline of a dodecahedron, with its 30 edges and 12 sides, and if one considers the face planes of the linked pentagrams the underlying shape is a polyhedron called the “great rhombic triacontahedron”. A year or so ago I got to visit the National Museum of Mathematics in NYC where I bought this puzzle in the @momath1 museum shop. This puzzle was great fun to assemble- buy one to support this inspirational museum, and make a great sculpture for your bookshelf!
This "iBall" desk toy is no longer in producltion. Howerver, a similar version of this toy can be made from these components:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: two piece acrylic shell
From Amazon: BUY NOW: 1/4 inch ball bearings
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Centripetal Kinetic Toy: seven rolling steel balls hug to the inside of the acrylic sphere given sufficient velocity. Here the balls are launched such that their orbits are in the same plane, and due to their angular momentum (and a torque due to gravity) the plane of rotation precesses like the axis of a spinning top until friction slows them down. This toy was made in 2007 (sadly no longer in production) and marketed under the name "iBall".
Get this nice set of regular polyhedra dice here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Polyhedra Dice Set
Less expensive sets of standard plastic dice here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Polyhedra Dice Set
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Platonic Solids Dice Set: The five famous convex regular polyhedra in the form of fair dice. This set is cast in metal with clean edges and makes for a great way to own these symmetrical objects that have fascinated thinkers ever since the ancient Greeks wrote about them circa 360 BC. Only these five forms meet these criteria (in 3D space) for each face: must be equal in size, be equal in number of sides, each side of equal length, identical in angle were any two sides meet, and have the same number of sides meet at each vertex point of the solid. 2000 years later the famous mathematician Euler determined that for these 5 shapes V-E+F=2, the number of corners (vertices), minus the number of edges, plus the number of faces, will always equal 2.
Get an infinity cube here (many colors and sizes to choose from):
From Ricardo Churchill (Etsy): BUY NOW: Infinity Cube
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Infinity Cube Sculpture: crafted from solid stainless steel and powder coated orange, the geometry of this mathematical sculpture is the perimeter of the faces of a cube traced by a nonintersecting connection of equal line segments. When viewed from a corner, a cube has a hexagonal cross section, and some may recall the famous logo of Silicon Graphics computers based on such an infinity cube (a design by Scott Kim). Rotating this “tubed cube” along a diagonal axis reveals the interesting symmetries of this geometric construction.
Many versions to choose from- get one here!
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Galileo Thermometer
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Galilean Thermometer: time lapse- 60 minutes condensed to 20 seconds. One of my favorite physics toys, but challenging to make into any kind of interesting video. Here a change of about 14 degrees F is shown as the device cools down and the bulbs rise. I filmed the process three times each with somewhat different intermediate states. This thermometer works on Archimedes' principle of buoyancy- as the the water in the column cools down its density increases and objects (glass bulbs) with less mean density begin to rise. The bulbs are calibrated into 2 degree F increments from 70 F to 82 F.