All physicsfun toys

Drinking Bird Heat Engine

Get this famous physics toy from these sources: 
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Drinking Bird Engine 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Drinking Bird Engine 

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Wikipedia has wonderful details about the rich history (and further descriptions of the operational principals) of the Drinking Bird. 
Drinking Bird Heat Engine: time lapse of 15 minutes into 15 seconds (4 cycles). Cooling by evaporation at the head leads to lower pressure in the top bulb, the dichloromethane fluid rises 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 time lapse allows a clearer picture of how the fluid rises, shifting the center of mass, and how tipping makes the glass column lift out of the fluid in the bottom allowing the pressure to equalize and letting gravity pull the fluid to return to the base. Process repeats as long as the top stays wet. So much physics in one hypnotic toy!

Memory Spring

Available here: 
From Mindsets: BUY NOW Memory Springs 

Affordable samples and kits here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW: Energy Wire 

Similar produces featuring Nitinol Memory Wire: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Nitinol Memory Wire Kits 

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Memory Spring: some special alloys of brass can be made to have a shape memory triggered by temperature. These springs quickly change their length from 1 cm to 2.5cm when heated above 90 C (done here with hot water) and just as quickly shrink back to original size when cooled (immersed in cold water). Useful in many applications, especially things like automatic fire sprinkler valves and thermostats in car engines. This amazing property is related to a solid state phase transition similar to that of Nitinol wire called a Martensitic transformation.

Holoscopes

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

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6 and 12 Faced Holoscopes: a cube and dodecahedron of mirrors. A type of kaleidoscope based on truncated Platonic solids by artist Gary Allison @holoscope2000. These holoscopes are in the form of two famous Platonic solids- each with all the corners cut off to allow light to enter through triangular holes. Through the symmetry of the reflections, these triangles appear as an infinite array of tetrahedron shapes in the dodecahedron, and as beautiful repeating stellated octahedrons in the cube. Each holoscope has stained glass on the exterior and front surface mirrors on the inside which create the amazing and seemingly impossible spaces within. 


The PhiTop

This great little lab stirrer (which I modified to have a transparent top) can be used in many investigations and demonstrations: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Magnetic Stirrer 

Inexpensive concave lenses make great spinning platforms- get one here: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Concave Lens Spin Station 

Get a PhiTOP in aluminum here (will work nicely in this demo):
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW PhiTOP 
From Amazon: BUY NOW PhiTOP

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Induced Current Spin-Up: Spinning magnets from the magnetic stirrer induce electric currents to flow in the brass PhiTOP- these currents then create their own magnetic field which opposes the magnets underneath and pushes the PhiTOP to spin. Credit to astrophysicist Kenneth Brecher, the creator of the 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 lens keeps the top from wandering off of magnetic stirrer. 

Tree Marble Run

Available here! 
From Mabro Toys BUY NOW Tree Marble Run 

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Tree Marble Run: conifer tree shaped kinetic marble toy cleverly constructed from a single piece of bent rod. Gravity translates to kinetic energy of rotation which carries the marble to the extremity of each branch before it reverses to descend to the next level. An aesthetically simple device that is more challenging to construct than one might think. From Mabro Toys.

 

Magnetic Tip Spinning Top

Available from my friends at Grand Illusions Ltd.: 
From Grand Illusions: BUY NOW Magnetic Top with Spiral & Snake 

Also on Etsy: BUY NOW: Magnetic Top with Spiral

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Magnetic Tip Spinning Top: the top stays on the perimeter of the steel plate spiral- but since the top is more massive, the spiral moves with curious motion. This kinetic art toy takes advantage of Newton's 3rd law and rotational kinetic energy.


Skew Dice

Available here! 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Skew Dice

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Skew Dice: these unusually shaped dice are completely fair- roll them and the probability of outcomes are identical to a standard set of dice! The odd shapes are a special type of polyhedra called asymmetric trigonal trapezohedra which come in right and left handed versions- this set has one of each (mirror images of each other). What allows this shape to be fair like a cube has to do with the property of being isohedral, where each face of an object will map onto all other faces via a symmetry of the object. Manufactured by The Dice Lab. 

Kaleidoscope Symmetry Physics

Lief Colson's store is now Colorfulscopes on Etsy with many designs to choose from- all with precision aligned high quality front surface mirrors: 
From Etsy store Colorfulcopes : BUY NOW Precision Teleidoscopes 

Amazing next-level fine art kaleidoscopes avaibable here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Fine Art Kaleidoscopes

Get a Gyrobi here: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Gyrobi Kinetic Toy 

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Kaleidoscope Symmetry Physics: Two adjacent mirrors form the repeating image of a kaleidoscope, but the shape of the image is determined by the angle between the mirrors. This principle is demonstrated with three different symmetrical patterns using this beautiful set of precision teleidoscopes- angles of 36° (blue tube), 30° (green tube), and 22.5° (red tube), creating mandala stars with 5, 6, and 8 points. The angle for any symmetric star pattern of n points is just 180°/n. A teleidoscope is a kaleidoscope but with a lens on the end, such that the kaleidoscopic image is formed by whatever is put in front of it. Here the complex motion of a Gyrobi toy is used as the observation object. 

Infinity Mirror Light Bulb

Available as a light bulb with screw in base, or as a USB Lamp 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Infinity Mirror Lamps 

Get the minimal tabletop base here: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Minimal Lamp Base

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Infinity Mirror Light Bulb: illusion of depth from multiple refections. This glass bulb is partially coated inside and out with a thin metal layer. The metal layer is made thinner in a pattern of small circles to produce iridescent colors through thin-film interference effects. When lit from within by white LEDs, multiple reflections on the curved contour create the firework like spray of light and color. So much physics going on in this inexpensive novelty bulb! 


Fresnel Minor Lamp

See the gallery of work by the artist: 
Art Gallery: inquire about availability 
Sean Agustine March

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Fresnel Minor Lamp: Microlayers of metals and metal oxides allow a slab of glass to transmit a different color than it reflects through thin-film optical phenomena such as interference and selective absorption. In this remarkable art piece, dichroic glass is combined with infinity mirror type multiple reflections creating this dazzling display of physics! Special thanks to @seanaugustinemarch for this amazing addition to my collection.

Widmanstatten Pattern

Available here: 
From Etsy: BUY NOW: nickel iron meteorite slice 

This kind of display stand also available in many sizes: 
From Etsy: BUY NOW Caliper Display Stand 

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Widmanstatten Pattern: this slice of Gibeon Meteorite has been etched with mild acid to show these nickel-iron crystalline structures that are only found in meteorites. Widmanstatten patterns from nickel-iron can not be produced in the lab or in any factory- the structure only forms if the metal cools at a rate of 100 degrees per million years! 

Variable Hue Lamp

This fairly inexpensive hue lamp is made by IKEA and is available here: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW DIODER Variable Color Lamp 

Explore the physics of light and color with this excellent kit: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Thames & Kosmos Optical Science Kit

Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated

Variable Hue Lamp: Seeing color is both about the source of illumination and the reflective and absorptive properties of the observed object. These colorful images look drastically different as this illumination source cylces through a wide range of hues via variable mixtures of red, green, and blue wavelengths. A demonstration that explores some of the complexities underlying the physics and psychophysics of color vision. 


Polage

Click on any image to see a short video of more polage in action: 
From Austine Studios: Polarized Light Art 

Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated

Click this link 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: art with polarized light using polarizing sheets and cellulose to create changing forms and colors. Rotation of the filter allows the artist to incorporate more than one image and produce colorful metamorphosis. This piece was created by Austine Wood Comarow- the main developer of this art form- and this piece is signed "Young Rose 1987 28/50". Light 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. 


Dual Axis Sand Pendulum

Available in many styles and colors: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Sand Pendulum 
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Dual Axis Sand Pendulum: the kinetic energy trades back and forth between swinging toward the support arm and then swinging perpendicular to that path tracing Lissajous figures in the sand. The sand slowly dissipates the energy and the traced figures get smaller so the next one fits inside the last. Coupled oscillations like this can occur when multiple modes of motion (degrees of freedom) are available to the system.

Scrap Metal Kinetic Sculpture

The nested curves revealed with this device are related to the Lissajous curves. 
Learn more on Wikipedia: Lissajous curve 

See another: kinetic art system that produces similar curves.

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Scrap Metal Kinetic Sculpture: a bent spring becomes a coupled harmonic oscillator with two modes of oscillation, one along a horizontal direction and one at an angle. As the kinetic energy trades back and forth between these two modes the end of the spring traces out a Lissajous curve (revealed by a white LED) which gets smaller in size each cycle as friction dissipates energy from the system. The full beauty of this motion is captured by recording the light traced using the Slow Shutter Cam App which unveils the nested family of curves.($1.99 in App Store, Cogitap Software)

Time's Up

Similar timers available from these sources: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Inverted Timer 

Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated


Time's Up: inverse of the sandglass- tiny plastic beads are less dense than the water and thus ascend to the top of the container under the influence of a buoyant force in accordance with Archimedes' principle. This timer takes almost exactly 6 minutes to complete shown here at normal speed for the first half of this video, and the second half is condensed to 24 seconds in time-lapse.