Impossible Arrow
One of many creative illusions and curiosities of Victoria Skye. See her work here:
Visit Now: Victoria's Illusion Art
Click here for to explore more "impossible objects"
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Impossible Arrow: an arrow made of wood through the center of standard steel hex nut. The arrow was carved and somehow placed through the nut- neither the wood nor the steel nut was cut or glued to produce this object. Not impossible, but creating this does depend on the use of some obscure physical properties of wood (similar to the impossible nail sculpture).
Impossible Nail
Nice versions are curretnly available from Etsy:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Impossible Nail
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Impossible Nail: An eighteen-penny nail driven through the inner notches of a solid piece of wood. The wood was notched and the nail added- no glue used or cuts made, and the nail is solid and in one piece. Not impossible, but creating this does depend on the use of some amazing physical properties of wood. I won’t reveal the method here but a quick search on YouTube produces a few how-to videos showing the process.
Woodwork Rattleback
The amazing work of Emmanuel Péluchon can be purchased here:
From Boisselier.ca: BUY NOW: Fine Woodworked Rattleback
Other rattlebacks variations found here- check them out: physicsfun rattlebacks
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Woodwork Rattleback: prefers to spin counter clockwise- If spun clockwise, a complicated combination of friction, precession, and instability induced vibrations transforms the rotational energy into into rattling (energy of oscillations) and then into rotational energy in the opposite direction. This behavior is related to an asymmetry in weight along the left/right symmetry axis- the dark wood is Apple which has twice the density of the light colored Basswood(Linden). This asymmetry in weight induces an instability, quite like the vibrations that arise from an unbalanced tire, that transfers the rotational energy to the intermediate rocking vibrations. This beautiful physics toy was produced by Emmanuel Péluchon.
The FluoroSphere
The kit includes the UV LED base, elegant glass sphere, and enough fluorescent gel for many repeat lights shows.
From PyroFarms: BUY NOW: FluoroSphere
From Amazon: BUY NOW: FluoroSphere
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The FluoroSphere: intricate and dynamic lights shows are produced within an elegant glass sphere as fluorescent dyes in mineral oil slowly mix into room temperature water. Ultraviolet LEDs (in the base on which the sphere rests) make the dyes glow brightly and reveal the initial nondiffusive mixing structure which includes the phenomena of drops, plumes, and other features of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities. Shown here, slightly sped up, is the first 8 minutes or so of the process which takes up to half an hour to mix evenly. The green light is characteristic of the famous fluorescein dye.
Chaotic magnetic Pendulum
These chaotic pendula are still available on eBay.
Chick here for similar chaotic systems
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Chaotic Magnet Pendulum: adding magnetic forces to gravity gives this pendulum chaotic motion- not random, but very sensitive to slight differences in initial launch conditions. The second half of this video features a particular launch path that begins with a semi-stable orbit but then goes chaotic, captured with an attached LED and recorded with a slow shutter app. Arranging the dipoles magnets on the base leads to different patterns of motion- here white attracts and black repels. This vintage device is from the 1970s and was sold by the name “Krazy Leg” by Rathcon Inc.
Gravity Defying Nail and Magnet
Neodymium magnets will produce the largest gap when suspending a nail.
Please use exterme caution when handling these magnets.
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Neodymium Super Magnet
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Magnetic Defiance of Gravity: a nail suspended between a chain and a powerful neodymium magnet. Ferromagnetic attraction over a distance of many millimeters, and a reminder of the presence of the typically invisible electromagnetic forces all around us. Make your own with a paperclip, string, and a refrigerator magnet- or get a neodymium magnet and see how massive an object you can suspend in air.
Balance Stacking Sculpture
Another wonderful desing by BinDesign- get one here in black or natural wood:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Bin Design Balancer Puzzle
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Balance Stacking Sculpture: a series of torques in unstable equilibrium complete this Calder-esque structure. As each component is added its weighted end balances all the others before it, with the initial small piece weighing about a gram or so. Remove the end piece and the whole structure comes down. Another wonderful design by artist Bin Xu.
Floating Rings Illusion: Dr. Manhattan Booth
Created in my shop with these parts:
From Amazon: plastic rings, plastic sphere, blue paint
Inspired by the Phone Booths in the new Watchmen series.
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Calling Dr. Manhattan: floating rings illusion device inspired by the recent Watchmen series. Two attached rings appear to roll in an impossible way around an orb, featured in a number of scenes on top of blue interplanetary phone booths in the new Watchmen series. Created in my shop with plastic rings and some blue spray paint.
Holoscopes: Dodecahedron and Cube
Order a holoscope from the artist's gallery here:
The artwork of Gary Allison: BUY NOW Holoscopeworld.com
Look through other holoscopes in my collection here: Holoscope Kaleidoscopes
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Holoscopes: polyhedra of mirrors (dodecahedron and cube) with the interior viewed from one corner and illuminated by light entering from glass spheres placed at all of the other vertices. A type of kaleidoscope based on mirrored polyhedra by artist Gary Allison @holoscope2000, and future posts will include tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron holoscope forms as I complete my Platonic solids set. Each holoscope has stained glass on the exterior and front surface mirrors on the inside which create the amazing and seemingly impossible spaces within.
Vsauce Drinking Bird Heat Engine
This orange drinking bird came in my subscrioton to The Curiostiy Box- highly reccomended!
From the Vsauce team: subscribe today: The Curiosity Box
The classic drinking bird heat engine can be found here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW
Drinking Bird Engine
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Drinking Bird Heat Engine: this classic physics toy came in my The Curiosity Box which provided this orange species of the bird complete with dapper top hat emblazoned with the Vsauce logo. Cooling by evaporation at the head leads to lower pressure in the top bulb, the pressure in the bottom bulb pushes the dichloromethane fluid up the neck making the bird top heavy and the bird tips over dipping its beak and letting the fluid return to the bottom bulb. The process repeats, and as long as the top stays wet and cooler than the bottom this heat engine will continue to cycle.
Lampe Kino: Polarizing Art
The amazing art of Anne-Lise King available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Kino Lamp Polarizing Art Lights
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Lampe Kino: Art from from the manipulation of polarized light. These videos showcase two designs by artist Anne-Lise King, and each design can itself be displayed in numerous ways depending on the orientation of the polarizing filter and the layering of plastic imaging sheets. Light has an orientation, denoted as polarization, and a polarizing filter can be used to block certain orientations. The colors produced here come from how the molecular structure of plastics can rotate the polarization of light that passes through- light corresponding to yellows and greens gets rotated in plastic in proportion to their frequency, red and blue frequencies only a small amount. The images here are constructed with different layers of plastic to rotate the light by differing amounts. Polarizing filters are then added to allow only certain frequencies (colors) of light through.
Sphere and other Orbiforms
Similar items available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Sphere and Orbiforms
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Sphere and other Orbiforms: pi day special post- volumes of constant width made from solid brass. These shapes have constant diameter no matter their orientation and will roll like spheres between two planes- note how the acrylic plate stays parallel to the table as the sphere and other orbiforms roll underneath. The first orbiform is based on the Reuleaux triangle and the second on a Reuleaux pentagon. Fun pi fact- the perimeter of any shape of constant width is alway equal to the diameter(width) multiplied by pi: P=πd.
Sun Sculpture: Magnetic Field Lines of the Solar Corona
This wonderful 3D rendering of the Sun available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Sun Sculpture
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Solar Sculpture: the paths of 5000 magnetic field lines etched into optical quality glass map the complex flow of plasma in the Sun’s outermost atmosphere replicating how the solar corona appeared on Oct 21, 2000. This sculpture is based on a sophisticated computer model from a group of research scientists at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, and the rendering contains 300,000 etched points to create the image. A map of our wonderful and complex star that can be held in the palm of your hand.
Lenticular Perspective Art
These vintage works by Bechdolt can sometimes be found on auction on eBay.
Similar and amazing art of reverspective found here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Reverspective Motion Art
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Lenticular Art: geometry in relief and perspective combine to allow the blending of two images. Such dual image paintings go back to at least the 1600’s but this nice geometrical design is by Bob Bechdolt produced in the 1980s.
Infinity Mirror Watch
This watch is no longer in production but can be found right now on eBay and other auction sites:
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Infinity Mirror Watch: wear an illusion of a deep void on your wrist- fluorescent hands and dial on a mirrored face are illuminated by a UV LED and covered by a partially mirrored crystal to create the famous infinity mirror effect by multiple reflections. The Infinity Optics watch was produced in a limited run by Can You Imagine Inc. a few years ago- a perfect accessory for your next rave!