Turbine Convection Color Candle
Available here:
From MOMA: BUY NOW Convection Color Candle
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Turbine Convection Color Candle: a simple heat engine by designer Achille Castiglioni- rotational motion resulting from the convection of hot air due to the candle flame of a tea light. All moving parts of thin stainless steel with semitransparent colored panels. Energy transfer: chemical bonds to heat to kinetic energy of the rising air to rotational kinetic energy of the turbine.
Tree Tops
Produced by Playable Art
From Amazon: BUY NOW Tree Tops
The mirror base comes with the Euler's Disk set (Click here for Euler's Disk)
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Tree Tops: these conical wooden tops are more stable when spun on their stems than on their points. Spinning things behave differently! The mirror is slightly bowl shaped and keeps the top from walking off the table
Infinity Mirror Tea-light Candle
Get one here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Infinity Tea-Light
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Infinity Mirror Tea-light Candle: parallel partially mirrored panes of glass create the illusion of multiple candle flames through the physics of reflection and refraction. Featuring candles from my collection this month as the winter solstice approaches.
Jupiter Globe by Mova
Available for all the planets and several versions of Earth:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Mova Globes: all types
From Amazon: BUY NOW Mova Globes: Jupiter
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From movaglobes.com: BUY NOW Mova Globe: Jupiter
Jupiter Globe by Mova: rotating counterweighted globe sealed within a clear liquid filled acrylic sphere. The rotation is powered by light that shines through the semi-transparent Jupiter globe on to solar cells within the globe which drive a motor. But what does the motor push against to maintain the rotation? Believe it or not it uses magnets to push against the Earth's magnetic field like a compass needle. Wonderful physics of all kinds in the design of this clever device.
Photicular 3D Animation Book
Kainen and Kaufmann now offer four books in this series- all amazing!
From Amazon: BUY NOW Photicular Animation Books
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Photicular 3D Animation Book: the foremost in lenticular image technology produces these looping motion images that look like videos on a computer screen. This amazing book of 8 astonishing moving images is the creation of photographer/artist/inventor Dan Kainen where the moving images use Kainen's patented process where a specially processed image slides under a thin film of lenticular lenses. Writer Carol Kaufmann puts each image into context incorporating fun science facts appropriate for kids yet informative to all.
Photicular Dinosaur Book
From Kainen and Wollard:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Dinosaur: Photicular Book
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Click this link for the other amazing books in the series.
Photicular Dinosaur Book: the latest in the photicular series- this time with scientific reconstructions of ancient beasts! This amazing book of 8 astonishing moving and looping lenticular images is the creation of photographer/artist/inventor Dan Kainen where the moving images use Kainen's patented process where a specially processed image slides under a thin film of lenticular lenses. Kainen has teamed up this time with Kathy Willard who puts each image into context incorporating fun paleontology facts appropriate for kids yet informative to all.
Well Balanced Cabernet
Similar wine racks available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Balance Wine Rack
Many well crafted versions avaulable here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW Wine Bottle Balance
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Well Balanced Cabernet: a carefully engineered acrylic version of this famous demonstration- the center of mass of the rack/wine bottle system is directly over the base providing unstable equilibrium for this balancing act. Suspended here is Hypothesis by Roots Run Deep, an excellent Napa cabernet sauvignon.
Praxinoscope
This ornament comes complete with an LED to light the images and a Vince Guaraldi Trio soundtrack!
From Amazon: BUY NOW Snoopy Skates Praxinoscope Ornament
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Praxinoscope: this Hallmark brand tree ornament brings Snoopy to life using a century old animation technology. 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 ring of 8 mirrors is 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.
Infinity Bubble Lights
Still in production today:
From Amazon: BUY NOW String of Bubble Lights
This centerpiece stand with lights available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Bubble Light Centerpiece
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Infinity Bubble Lights: a classic since the 1940’s- colored methylene chloride encased in glass vials boils from the heat of a low wattage incandescent bulb. Also known as dichloromethane, this liquid has a boiling point at 39.6 °C (103 °F), few degrees above human body temperature. ??Wishing all my followers a joyous and warm holiday!
Reflective Wind Spinner
Get one here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Wind Spinners
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Reflective Wind Spinner: this one translates rotating motion into a repeating expanding (or shrinking) circle. An interesting one of many ways to connect rotational motion to translational motion.
SpinForce Globe
This fun toy available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW SpinForce Globe with Two Cars
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SpinForce Globe: entering through trap doors two spring powered toy cars hug to the inside of the acrylic sphere. Given sufficient velocity, the surface normal force supplies the centripetal acceleration that keeps the cars in their gravity defying trajectories. The kinetic energy is supplied by a pullback motor- a clutching mechanism patented in 1952 found in many toys, where pulling the toy car backwards winds a coil spring. A toy full of physics!
Lightning 2000 Plasma Lamp
A similar device is available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Blue Lightning Lamp
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Lightning 2000 Plasma Lamp: low pressure noble gasses glow due to discharge from high voltage. A small high frequency coil at center creates the high voltage potential between the center electrode dome and the outer glass dome which is coated with a thin transparent film of metal. Current flow through the thin gas produces the glowing zigzagged path like that of lightning but more rounded. Shown here in 480 fps slow motion.
Event Horizon Spin Coin
Available here!
From J. L. Lawson & Co. BUY NOW Event Horizon Spin Coin
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Event Horizon Spin Coin: a flat spinning top with a black hole theme will spin up to 10 minutes on a sufficiently smooth surface due to a ceramic ball contact point and a high moment of inertia from the dense metal in the form of a disk. The pattern on the top of this spin coin evokes the warping of spacetime around a spinning black hole and produces interesting flow motion in the video due to aliasing with respect to the camera frame rate. A collaboration of @jllawsonandco and @shirepostmint
Inverting Valentines Illusion
This 3D printed illusion available here:
From Shapeways: BUY NOW Red Hearts Illusion Object
Similar item here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Red Hearts Illusion
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Inverting Valentines Illusion: Love is a matter of perspective in this illusion that depends on viewing angle. A sweet take on the ambiguous object illusion invented by Kokichi Sugihara of Meiji University.
Rhombic Blocks Mathematical Puzzle
This beautifully made puzzle available here::
From Etsy: BUY NOW Rhombic Blocks
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Rhombic Blocks Mathematical Puzzle: There are 9 possible ways three rhombuses can be joined together along a common edge, and similar to pentominoes, these 9 tri-rhombs can tile a polyhedron, in this case a hexagon. There are 14 solutions to this puzzle, and one where no same-colored pieces touch. A beautiful math discovery by puzzle master Stuart Coffin.
The PhiTOP
Get one here!
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW PhiTOP
From Amazon: BUY NOW PhiTOP
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The PhiTOP: spinning things often have surprising physics! This unique top is made of solid aluminum in the shape of a prolate elIipsoid- and the name of the top is derived from the following design requirement: the ratio of the semi minor (short) axis to the semi major (long) axis is made equal to the mathematical constant the golden ratio φ (phi). Invented by astrophysicist Kenneth Brecher, this top stands up vertically (when spun with sufficient rotational velocity) due to physics similar to that of the tippy-top.
High Voltage Fractal in Wood
Amazing creations made here:
From Etsy store EngravedGrain: BUY NOW High Voltage Fractal
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High Voltage Fractal in Wood: a Lichtenberg fractal created by a high voltage electrical current flow across a piece of wood. Since wood is an insulator a light coating of conducting water (for instance a solution of baking soda or salt) is first applied to the surface. Metal electrodes are then attached at each end of the wood piece and a dangerous source of high voltage is applied (such as a microwave oven transformer or neon light transformer).
Logarithmic Spiral Gears
Amazing kinetitc creations made here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Spiral Gear Set 3D Printed
Original 3D print files available here:
From Thingverse: Spiral Gear Set
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Logarithmic Spiral Gears: an extreme example of non-circular gear sets. This set is based on the famous Fibonacci spiral and evokes the cross section of nautilus shell with internal chambers. If one gear of this set is turned at constant speed, the other will turn with an varying speed. A laser cut based on 3D prints of Misha Tikh and the research of Balint et al.