All physicsfun toys

Celestial Sphere: the Stars of the Night Sky

Created by Clemens & Christoph of CinkS labs: Available in a cube too! 
From CinkS Labs: BUY NOW: Celestial Spheres

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Celestial Sphere: the positions of 5068 stars as they appear in the night sky- along with 88 constellations, laser etched into a crystal sphere. This globe includes all stars of sixth magnitude or brighter- basically all the stars that the average and unaided human eye can see in the sky. The Milky Way in a Sphere: the distribution of stars in our home galaxy, laser etched into a crystal sphere, according to the most recent telescopic surveys and mappings- including the stars in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy (a small galaxy that is simultaneously orbiting and getting absorbed into the Milky Way) and the major globular clusters outside the main disk

12-Faced Holoscope

Order a holoscope from the artist's gallery here: 
The artwork of Gary Allison: BUY NOW Holoscopeworld.com 

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12-Faced Holoscope: a dodecahedron of mirrors. A type of kaleidoscope based on truncated Platonic solids by artist Gary Allison. This holoscope is in the form of a dodecahedron with each corner cut off allowing light to enter through triangular holes. Through the symmetry of the reflections, these triangles appear as an infinite array of tetrahedrons. Each holoscope has stained glass on the exterior and front surface mirrors on the inside which create the amazing and seemingly impossible spaces within.

Zoetrope

Get a similar affordable Zoetrope from these sources:

From Etsy: BUY NOW: Zoetrope 

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Zoetrope

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Zoetrope: the physics and psychophysics of motion animation- still images flashed in rapid succession produces the illusion of motion through persistence of vision. The slits are crucial to creating the illusion by blacking out the visual stimulus for a short duration- without these pauses only a blur is perceived. When the image flash rate is above the flicker fusion frequency (approximately 16Hz) we perceive fluid motion- the basis for all movies and TV. 


Oloids: Solid and Anit-oloid

Order your Anti-Oliod today: available in three types of metal:

From The Matter Collection: ORDER NOW: Anti-Oloids in Brass, Copper, and Steel 

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Oloids: “solid hull” and “ruled surface” types made from brass and copper- oloids are unique solids that roll in such a way that every point on their surface comes in contact with the plane. The basis of the oliod’s geometry is that of two connected circles, one perpendicular to the other such that the rim of each circle goes through the center of the other. The shapes you see here are the results of connecting the rims of these circles together with a family of straight lines, one method leads to the solid convex hull form, and another way leads to the ruled oloid (anti-oloid). 

Rolling Ball Fountain

Find this and similar fountains here:

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Rolling Ball Fountain

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Rolling Ball Fountain: this miniature kugel fountain features a glass sphere that sits on a socket of precisely similar shape, and is suspended on a very thin (less than half a mm) film of moving water which greatly reduces friction. The velocity of the water in the thin layer slows as it spreads out via a hole in the socket, and this hole is offset from the center so that the interaction with the water stream sets the ball spinning. A small pump provides the flow rate, and colorful LEDs illuminate the glass sphere to show off the rotation. Perhaps you’ve seen public art installations featuring giant granite spheres weighing tons and yet similarly suspended on a thin layer of flowing water. Physics principles involved here include viscosity and Reynold’s number, the Navier-Stokes equation, Bernoulli’s principle and the study of thin layer lubricants.

Nixie Tubes and Clock

The Nixie Tube Clock in the video is of amazing craftsmanship- real hardwood with brass accents and solid construction. Get one from this excellent shop: 
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Nixie Tube Clocks 

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Nixie Tube: long before there were 7 segment LED displays there was the Nixie- cold cathode tubes with a wire mesh and 10 cathodes shaped in the form of numerals 0-9 that illuminate through neon glow discharge. The “Numeric Indicator eXperimental 1” or NIX 1 was introduced in 1955 by Burroughs Corporation and manufactured until the 1990s. This clock uses modern electronics to power Russian versions called the ИH-19A where the numbers are stacked so the front symbols obscure each lighted cathode minimally: from back to front 1320984756. 


Tessellation Origami

See more of Ekaterina's amazing work on her website gallery: Kusudama me!

Contact her to buy her artwork, or you can buy her books and learn how to fold amazing geometries!

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Ekaterina Lukasheva: Papercraft and Origami

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Tessellation Origami: nested spirals and triangles created from one flat sheet of paper! This beautiful work by Ekaterina Lukasheva also demonstrates how folded paper can obtain very different physical properties than that of the original flat paper. When stretched out this paper sculpture prefers to snap back into spirals and triangles, and although most materials bulge out when compressed along one direction, here the design compresses evenly along all three axis of the hexagonal symmetry. Title: Electricity-A Variaton of Spaced unit Opus_T-142.

Viscous Flow Resin Lamps

From EP Designlab: BUY NOW: Block Design Resin Lamps
Batteries last 3hours + and each lamp comes with a charging cable
Special discount for @physicsfun followers on all EP Lights
use coupon code: PHYFUN (10% off) 
on all  EP Lights LED Bulb Art 

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Viscous Flow Resin Lamp: art from mixing high viscosity fluids. Each lamp from EP Designlab captures a unique pattern based on the physics of nondiffusive turbulence resulting from the mixing of viscous fluids- in this case silicone resins. When the resins cure the pattern is captured and frozen in place- and these blocks are ready to display with USB rechargeable LED illumination in the base. With this process no two lamps are alike, and all capture intricate mixing physics.

 


Steinmetz Bicylinder

3D printed versions available here along with many other amazing geometrical objects:

From Etsy: BUY NOW: Steinmetz Bicylinder

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Steinmetz Bicylinder: intersect two cylinders at right angles and the remaining confined space is the bicylinder- shown here machined from stainless steel. The bicylinder casts a circular shadow along two orientations, and a square shadow perpendicular to those. In addition the curve created along where the two cylinders meet is an ellipse- as seen with the object spinning along the intersection axis. Fun fact: the area and volume of this object are known to be A=16r^2 and V=16r^3/3. Thanks to Zac Eichelberger of Math Meets Machine for sending me one of his creations. 

 

 

Pisces Kinetic Art Lamp

The Pisces Lamp is now avaialbel for purchase here:

BUY NOW: Pisces Kinetic Art Lamp

From the same artist who created the Aquarius Fountian Lamp

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Pisces Kinetic Art Lamp: standing waves of a rotating string are illuminated by strobing light in this new kinetic sculpture by artist and computer engineer Stephen Co. With the help of programmable micro-controllers, strips of addressable RBG LEDs are made to flash in sequences that make the rotating string change colors, merge into spoon shaped surfaces, or split into multiple braids. The string is propelled by small motors and the standing waves can have multiple nodes, which can be altered by touching the string while in motion.


JSC-MARS-1 Martian Soil Simulant

Currently avaiable simulated martian regolith:
MMS-2 Mars Regolith Simulant developed by the Exolith Lab at University of Central Florida

From STEMcell Science: BUY NOW:  Martian Soil Simulant Sample

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JSC MARS-1 Martian Soil Simulent: what the rust colored dirt of the Red Planet would look like up close! Produced by NASA for engineering studies of future human activities on Mars, this simulated regolith closely approximates the chemical, mineral, and grain size distribution based on data from the Viking and Pathfinder landers. 

 

JSC 1 Lunar Soil Simulant

Currently avaiable simulated lunar regolith:
LMS-1 Lunar Mare Simulant developed by the Exolith Lab at University of Central Florida

From StemCell Science: BUY NOW:  Lunar Soil Simulant Sample

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In the video: JSC-1 Lunar Soil Simulant- if you could scoop up a handful of the surface of the Moon, this is how it would look. Produced by NASA for engineering studies of future human activities on the Moon, the simulated regolith closely approximates the chemical, mineral, and grain size distribution found in actual lunar samples from the Apollo missions. Sourced from slightly porphyritic basalt ash sampled from craters near Flagstaff AZ and then processed. The LMS-1 Lunar Mare Simulant developed by the Exolith Lab is the latetest and most up to date version. 

Mini-Toroflux

The original version is available here: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Toroflux 

Get one and flow with it! 
From Art of Play: BUY NOW: The Toroflux
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Why does it look like a bubble when moving fast? Wikipedia has the details: when the object exceeds a certain speed the flicker fusion frequency of our vision produces the bubble illusion. 

The physics of the toroflux is wonderfully illustrated and explained in this article by Daniel Walsh. 

Mini-Toroflux: kinetic art toy made from a single continuous loop of stainless steel band. The band of spring metal is woven such that it forms a torus that can clamp on to and roll down a stick or in this case s segment of cord. This miniature version loops through itself nine times which requires the spring ribbon to twist creating a tension such that when released the spring will pop into its minimum energy state- a flower-like torus. Amazing combination of math and kinetic art invented by Jochen Valett. Thanks to Tim Rowett for sending me this rare mini version for my collection.


Red Raven Movie Record

These records (and the magic miror) are often found on eBay. 

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Red Raven Movie Record: this vintage toy comes from the year 1956 and uses 16 reflective surfaces on a “Magic Mirror” to convert any record player into a praxinoscope. On this particular record children can listen to a song about a tug boat and watch a cartoon animation in a loop. The praxinoscope and its predecessor, the zoetrope, both demonstrate the physics and psychophysics behind motion animation- still images flashed in rapid succession produce the illusion of motion through persistence of vision. The 16 slanted mirrors are crucial to creating the illusion allowing visual stimulus of each image for a short duration like a flip book- without these pauses only a blur is perceived. When the image flash rate is above the flicker fusion frequency (approximately 16Hz) we perceive fluid motion- the basis for all movies and TV.

Thermochromic Safety Sticker

These stickers transition back and forth and can be used on many surfaces. Get some here:

From Etsy: BUY NOW: Thermochromic Saftey Sticker

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Thermochromic Safety Sticker: the liquid crystal ester dye in this reusable sticker is calibrated to change color when the surface temperature exceeds 50°C (122°F)- that at which prolonged contact (more than 0.5s) will burn skin. Here the safety sticker is attached to a slab of aluminum and heated with a simple candle- it took about 3.5 minutes for the heat to distribute and bring the aluminum to the threshold temperature. When the surface cools the sticker again appears blank and can transition over and over again