Mini Waving Tube Guy
Get this inexpensive and silly toy here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube Guy
This power supply reccomended: BUY NOW: 9V power supply
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Mini Waving Tube Guy: the physics of fluid dynamics describes the flopping behavior of the famous dancing tube guy. Bernoulli’s principle tells us that when air is moving with a velocity, the pressure in the region of the moving airmass is reduced. When the tube guy stands strait, air escapes through his head and arms allowing a temporary steady velocity of flow which reduces pressure inside and he collapses and bends. When the tube is bent, airflow is cut off, and the tube inflates like a balloon building pressure until air can again escape through the top- and the process cycles back and forth between these two states creating the iconic dance moves. This desktop version uses a 9V battery to power the fan.
Aristotle's Wheel Paradox
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From Etsy: BUY NOW: Aristotle's Wheel
WIkipedia has some details on the Wheel "Paradox"
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Aristotle’s Wheel “Paradox”: How does the smaller attached disk travel the same length as the larger one if both disks only make one full rotation? Note the shorter path of the smaller disk, if rolled on its own. This beautifully made demonstration depicts an issue of geometry and motion that perplexed the best minds of humanity for 2000 years. The ancients knew the formula for circumference, and C=2πR for the large disk is clearly greater than C=2πr for the smaller- so how could the smaller disk, rotated once, still travel the distance of the larger one if attached? The great Galileo even offered a solution to the problem in his book Two New Sciences, where he approximated the situation as concentric hexagons and considered the limit as the number of sides increased. So what is the best answer to make sense of this situation?
Polage Miniatures
Austine has an on-line gallery of her amazing work.
From Austine Studios: BUY NOW: Polarized Light Art
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click here for more physics fun with polarization.
Here is a very nice discussion about polarization that pertains to Polage: Experiments With Polarized Light by Donald E. Simanek
Polage Miniatures: art with polarized light using polarizing sheets and birefringent cellophane to create changing forms and colors. Rotation of the polarizing filter allows the artist to produce colorful metamorphosis. These affordable sun catchers were created by Austine Wood Comarow (the main developer of this art form), and look amazing through polarized sunglasses as well. Light as a transverse wave has an orientation, denoted as polarization, and a polarizing filter can be used to block certain orientations. The colors in polage come from how the molecular structure of plastics can rotate the polarization of any light that passes through- but only light corresponding to yellows and greens gets rotated in plastic, reds and blues not so much. Polage uses different layers of plastic to rotate the light, and then polarizing filters are added to allow only certain frequencies (colors) of light through.
Magnetic Tensegrity Table
Available here:
From sphidget.com: BUY NOW: Magnetic Tensegrity Table
See similar scupltures here: Tensegrity on @physicsfun
Folow this link for Mova kinetic globes: Mova Globes- Earth and Planets
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Magnetic Tensegrity Table: This CNC machined tensegrity sculpture replaces the center tension member (chain) with a pair of attracting neodymium magnets. Made from 6061 aluminum and nickel plated steel chain, the “Impossible Table” is the creation of Kevin Sayers of sphidget.com. The table can support up to about a kilogram of mass, and makes for a nice display stand for my Mova globe of Pluto (swipe to view). Another fun configuration of the tensegrity concept, invented by Kenneth Snelson and made famous by the architect Buckminster Fuller in 1949.
The Colorizer
Get the Colorizer and lots of fun artwork here:
From ColorimetryLights.com: BUY NOW: The Colorizer
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The Colorizer: Our perception of color depends not only on the pigments and dyes embedded in objects and artwork, but also on the frequency of the illuminating light. The Colorizer uses multiple LEDs to morph the intensity (and mix) of the emitted frequencies through various rhythmic patterns- which then animate any still image comprised from a bright color palette. Swipe for a few examples. A creation of Miles Warren of ColorimetryLights. Images: 1- Zebra (Loren Shaw) 2- Colorimetry logo 3- Pentomino Tiling 1.0 (R Hall) 4- AlienPattern (Brent Johnson)
Drinking Dino Heat Engine
This dinosaur themed heat engine available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Drinking T-rex Desk Toy
Get also: the related Drinking Bird Heat Engine
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Drinking Dino Heat Engine: So what physics presents did you get this year? I got this Dippy Dino heat engine- where cooling by evaporation at the head leads to lower pressure in the top bulb such that the dichloromethane fluid (colored green) rises up the neck making the T-Rex top heavy and the dino tips over dipping its face in the water and letting the fluid return to the bottom bulb. The process repeats as long as the top stays wet. A fun and silly variation on the famous drinking bird physics toy- and the T-Rex was a closely related ancestor to the dinosaurs that live today- birds!
CineSpinner Hula Santa
CineSpinner animation kinetic art availabe here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: CineSpinner Santa
From Etsy: BUY NOW: CineSpinner (many animations)
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CineSpinner Hula Santa: ole St. Nick showing off his hooping skills in this barrier-grid type animation using Moiré pattern effects of constructive and deconstructive interference. One of many CineSpinner type kinetic animation loops by Scanimation creator, artist, and author Rufus Butler Seder.
Bimetal Seesaw Engine
Available in limited supplies here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Candle See-Saw
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Bimetal Seesaw Engine: candle powered heat engine. A coiled bimetal strip, like that found in a thermostat, uncoils when heated by the flame while moving a counterweight that shifts the center of mass to the left and takes the coil out of the flame. The coil then cools returning the counterweight to the right which places the coil back over the flame- and the process repeats until the candle burns out. Any device that converts heat energy into mechanical motion is called a heat engine- like the very simple one here.
Floating Rings Illusion
Some assembley required and very inexpensively made- think "happy meal" type toy- available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Solar Powered Ring Illusion
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Floating Rings Illusion: powered by a photovoltaic (solar) cell and small motor the connected rings appear to be rolling in an improbable way. This version of this hard to find illusion is sold as an air freshener for the dashboard of your vehicle (seems a bit too distracting though)- perhaps better for a sunny window sill in the home. Fun physics and psychophysics in a very inexpensive plastic toy.
Glass Spirals Kinetic Ornament
Sometime available from these sources:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Glass Spiral Ornaments
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Glass Spirals Kinetic Ornament: a thread of glass is shaped into connected helixes in this holiday decoration- one clockwise the other counterclockwise. When spinning the rotational motion creates translational motion both upwards and downwards along the vertical direction. Mesmerizing holiday decor!
RPSLK Dice
These dice are available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock Dice
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RPSLK Dice: the famous Lizard Spock extension to the Rock, Paper, Scissors game expressed on 10 sided dice allowing the study of the non-associative nature of the game (Rock wins Scissors, and Scissors wins Paper, but Rock does not win Paper, etc.), and other interesting math. The original RPS game had three “weapons” and only three rules are needed to play the game. Adding Lizard-Spock makes for 5 gestures, but now 10 rules must be used, including “Spock vaporizes Rock”, “Lizard poisons Spock”, and my favorite “Paper disproves Spock” (swipe to see famous graphic). Interestingly, mathematical analysis shows a similar four weapon game with equal odds of winning is not possible. It was also found that the next possible game with 7 gestures would require 21 rules to play. The Lizard-Spock extension was invented by Sam Kass and Karen Bryla in 2005 and made famous on the sitcom Big Bang Theory.
Pharaoh Hollow Mask Illusion
Similar items:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Hollow Mask Illusion Lamp
Also available: Einstein!
From Amazon: BUY NOW Einstein Illusion
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Wikipedia has the details on the Hollow Mask Illusion
Pharaoh Hollow Mask Illusion: this ceramic lamp features a concave image lighted from the bottom, which appears as a regular convex image via this vintage version of the hollow face illusion. An amazing feature of such an inverted image mask is that King Tut appears animated, and seems to always be looking in the direction of the viewer. Spooky physics and psychophysics for Halloween!
Soma Cube
The Soma Cube is available in a variety of materials and colors:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Soma Cube
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Soma Cube
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Soma Cube: Math toy invented by Danish scientist and artist Piet Hein, who claimed that this puzzle idea came to him as he was listening to a lecture on Quantum Mechanics by Werner Heisenberg (yes- that Heisenberg) in 1933. The seven pieces are all the ways 3 or 4 cubes can be joined, such that each piece has at least one inside corner. Amazingly there are 240 ways to make the larger cube from these 7 pieces- still not that easy!
Spriranetics Magnetic Rotor Toy
This produce was sold in the 1990s. The famous Whee-Lo type toys are still available- some light up:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Magnetic Rotor Toys
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Spiranetics Kinetic Toy: a rotor rolls while magnetically connected to a helical track in this toy sold by The Nature Company in the 1990s. The clever geometry allows two modes of operation- swipe to see mode 2. With the right timing, the rotor speed can be ramped up by just rotating the helix in place- or to get it to higher rotation speeds the helix can come out of the base as demonstrated. This device is a fancy version of the Whee-Lo type toys (swipe twice to see vintage 1970 version) with physics of angular momentum, magnets, and combinations of rotational and translational kinetic energy.
Sphere Sticks Geometric Puzzle
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From Etsy: BUY NOW: Sphere Sticks
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Sphere Sticks Puzzle: 30 identical wood pieces, each with two notches as shown, can create 12 interlocking pentagons in a perfect symmetry- look carefully and you can see that each rod is in an identical configuration with the 4 others that connect with it. Precision cut notches on the rods allow them to interlock with elastic tension such that vector sum of the 4 forces sum to zero in this tensegrity type equilibrium. The dodecahedron, with its 30 edges and 12 sides, is the basis of this puzzle sculpture.
Scale Solar System Sticker Set
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From TheCuriosityBox: BUY NOW: Scale Solar System
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This set came in my Curiosity Box subscrition. A great way to start collecting your own physics toys (and other brain food):
From the Vsauce team: BUY NOW: The Curiosity Box
Scale Solar System Sticker Set: one of the most amazing facts about the planets in our solar system is their relative sizes. Finally! a set of stickers- made to scale- using images from NASA, brought to you by the Vsauce team @thecuriositybox. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and dwarf planet Pluto included for comparison- all in their current order (sometimes Pluto is closer than Neptune), and mounted here on a sheet of polycarbonate.
Penrose Aperiodic Rhombs
A nice version of Penrose Tilings is available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW Penrose Tiles
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Penrose Aperiodic Rhombs: a famous aperiodic tiling with just two shapes- a pair of rhombuses with equal sides, but with the ratio of their areas made to equal the golden ratio. Note that although the starting pattern of 10 tiles is symmetrical, adding any further tiles breaks the symmetry, as highlighted by the path of the double curves. Sir Roger Penrose- who just won the Nobel prize in physics for his contributions to General Relativity- also discovered tessellations (tilings) that are aperiodic even though the two tile types are regularly shaped polygons. If one tries to shift a part of a Penrose tiling, the shifted part will not align or match up with any other part of the same tiling- all the way out to infinity! In this construction, single and double line patterns must align such that the tiles can only connect in specific ways to ensure the non-repetitive nature of the Penrose tiling structure. Shown here is one way these two tile types will fill the plane.
Wikipedia has the details on Penrose Tilings and their inventor Sir Roger Penrose (Recently won Nobel Prize!)