Get this nice spritl level here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Bubble Spirit Level
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Spirit Level in Accelerated Frame: rotation always involves acceleration as demonstrated by this beautiful sprit level. The level can correctly determine the direction of gravitational pull only when it is not undergoing acceleration.
These vintage magnetic toys often available from these sources (dog or seal):
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Magnetic Spinning Ball Toy
From eBay: BUY NOW: Magnetic Spinning Ball Toy
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Magnetic Seal & Ball: as the seal nears, the ball spins and moves away- the physics challenge is to explain how can magnets produce rotation of the ball? Hint: clever placement and orientation of magnets in the seal and ball are at the root of this design. A vintage toy from Germany. I love the extra magnet in the seal’s nose to store and display the ball.
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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Rhombic Dodecahedron Holoscope: 12 rhombic mirrors, with glass triangles and squares at the vertices, creates endless tetrahedrons and cubes that float in a geometric universe as viewed through one vertex. A type of kaleidoscope based on truncated polyhedra solids by artist Gary Allison @holoscope2000. Each holoscope has stained glass on the exterior and front surface mirrors on the inside which create the amazing and seemingly impossible spaces within.
This giraff version is hard to find, however the famous bird physics toy is available from these sources:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW: Drinking Bird Engine
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Drinking Bird Engine
See aslo: Drinking Dino
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Drinking Giraffe Heat Engine: a rare vintage version of the famous drinking bird heat engine- but in the form of a long necked mammal! With four legs instead of two the physics is the same- cooling by evaporation at the head leads to lower pressure in the top bulb such that the volatile fluid rises up the neck making the giraffe’s neck top heavy and the critter 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. The vintage packaging (made in Taiwan from the 1970s) identifies the liquid as trichloro monofluoro methane with red dye.
Very nice examples of Benton type holograms are availabe here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Benton Embossed Type Holograms
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Vintage Hologram Sticker: as a point source of light held above is moved from side to side, one can see what’s behind the balloon and elephant passenger in this vintage hologram sticker from the late 1970s. This sticker is an early example of a Benton or rainbow hologram like those now found on credit cards, and the 3D effect comes only from changing side to side viewing perspective, vertical perspective changes only change color. Unlike photographs, holograms are recordings interference patterns of light waves, and incredibly what you see is created by information encoded by tiny “scratches” in a layer thinner than a piece of paper!
Get a set here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW: Happy/Sad Balls
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Happy/Sad Spheres: one ball bounces the other stops dead. The bouncy ball is made of neoprene rubber and exhibits high elasticity. The "sad" ball is made of polynorbornene and converts almost all kinetic energy into heat and sound- approximating/demonstrating the case of a completely inelastic collision. Polynorbrene is used in vehicle bumpers, for soundproofing, vibration damping, and other applications where recoil motion is unwanted.
Often available here::
From Mr.Sci Science Factory: BUY NOW Double Radiometer
A wide variety available here, including some nice blown glass displays:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Radiometers
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Double Radiometer: a rare version of this classic physics toy with two rotators enclosed in the same partial vacuum chamber. Light heats up the vanes which then heat up the very thin gas left in the bulb- the black side of the vane is hotter and any gas molecules that comes into contact with the black fly off at a faster speed imparting impulse to the rotor. The bottom rotor has black on the right side of each vane and rotates clockwise, the top rotor has black on the left sides and thus has the opposite rotation.
Get one from David Fowler's shop:
From PhysicsHack: BUY NOW: Advanced Gyro
Made with extraordinary craftsmanship and high quality materials, and sold at a very reasonable price!
See also this other device by Mr. Fowler: Vortex Dome
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Hybrid Gyroscope Top: the Advanced Gyro is a unique design by @physicshack which exhibits a interesting vertical stability phenomenon when placed on this unique stand with three ball bearings that serve to minimize friction and keep the gyro centered. The top defies gravity, due in part to its angular momentum, and its spin axis slowly rises to a stable vertical position from subtle rolling friction interactions with the ball bearings. No pull cord needed, this unique design spins up via friction with a working surface (thin cardboard works well) and applying a circular motion to bring the rotor up to 1000s of RPM. Machined from solid stainless steel this top weighs in at about half a kilo, providing inertia that produces long spin times. Thanks to inventor/designer David Fowler for sending me this fantastic gyro.
Get this toy here:
From eBay: BUY NOW: Magnetic Rotor Toy
Momentum Magnetic: a rotor rolls while magnetically connected to an oblong track, and tilting the track to and fro keeps the rotor in motion. A spring switch activates LEDs to light in this fun variation of the famous Whee-Lo type toys- with physics of angular momentum, magnets, and combinations of rotational and translational kinetic energy.
Get a real Tetradrachm (or nice replica) here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Ancient Athena/Owl Coin
The hologram is quite a bit more affordable:
From eBay: BUY NOW: Ancient Coins Hologram
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Ancient Coins-Hologram and Real: An extraordinary example of a Benton or rainbow hologram, and an actual coin minted sometime before 400 BC (swipe to view). The coin featured is tetradrachm of Ancient Greece featuring the goddess of wisdom on the front, and on the back an owl as the symbol for wisdom and AθE meaning “of the Athenians”. The necklace is my attempt for the perfect anniversary gift to my wife (a scholar and teacher) which features this authentic coin mounted exquisitely by jeweler extraordinaire Betsy Yates @foxtailjewelry These fun holograms produce the 3D effect via recordings of interference patterns of light waves, and incredibly what you see is created by information encoded by tiny “scratches” in a layer thinner than a piece of paper.
Similar version currently avaiiable here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Impossible Pipe Elbows
Many other types of impossible objects are avialable- see these links and videos: Impossible Objects
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Impossible Pipe Elbows: made from standard pipe fittings held together only by their threads. No glue of any kind was used in its making. Design inspired by puzzle maker and artist Saul Bobroff.
Get these inspirational glasses here:
From LA Central Library gift shop: BUY NOW: Light Bulb Idea Holospex Glasses
Learn more about the No Prior Art Exhibit in the Getty Galery of the at the LA Central Library featuring toys from my @physicsfun collection.
Bright Idea Holospex: a physics toy souvenir from the “No Prior Art” exhibit currently in the Getty Gallery of the Los Angeles Central Library @lapubliclibrary - Put on these glasses and see 💡 on the top and bottom of every point source of light, as well as some sparkling spectral lines - be inspired! An exclusive design only available for this special exhibition that celebrates creativity and invention, and features on display many toys from my @physicsfun collection! The “lenses” in these glasses are actually transmission holograms but with the image located at the farthest point in the depth of field. Laser pointer dots create very clear images as well!
Get similar mirror illusion coin banks here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Mirror Illusion Coin Bank
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Mirror Illusion Bank: Symmetry + Reflection = Illusion. Half a strawberry, a mirror, and a symmetric image combine to make the "Art Bank" by Tenyo.
Get similar mirror illusion coin banks here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Mirror Illusion Coin Bank
From eBay: Search Now: Mirror Illusion Coin Bank
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Pikachu Mirror Illusion Bank: Symmetry + Reflection = Illusion. Half a symmetric object, a mirror, and a symmetric image combine in the Art Bank by Tenyo- simple physics magic! In this version a coin triggers a flashing LED and voice module.
Start your own physics toy collection with a subscrition to the Curiosity Box
This Curiotiry Box eclusive coin features an ambiagram
Get this inexpensive puzzle here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Coin Escape Puzzle
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Ambigram Coin Escape Puzzle: I just received this physics brain teaser in my @thecuriositybox The puzzle is the classic coin escape puzzle, and the special coin features a heads/tails ambigram as a humorous touch. A flick of a finger sets the device in motion to release the coin. Note that one metal ball got pinned for a bit! ✏️ the physics: centripetal acceleration and rotational kinetic energy will raise the small steel balls away from the center allowing the coin to fall through.
Sold in limitaed quantities in 2016, these rare holograms are sometimes available here:
From eBay: Search NOW: Zerba Imagiang Holograms
Click this link for see more holograms from my collection
How do they work? Check out this amazing post by my freind 3Blue1Brown: How are holograms possible?
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R2-D2 Digital Hologram: perhaps the most sophisticated example of computer generated holography ever made available to the consumer, featuring a key scene where the famous Star Wars droid is projecting a hologram of Princess Leia (yes- a hologram of a hologram!) Sold in limited quantities by Zebra Imaging back in 2016, the full color reflection hologram is comprised of 200,000 hologram pixels (hogels) capturing the entire light field of the scene with each hogel containing information from the equivalent of 200,000 viewpoints.
Amazingly this motor is available for less than $10 US.
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Brushless Motor/Generator with LED
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Electric Motor/Generator: this inexpensive and common motor can also serve as a generator of AC electricity- here lightning an LED when the shaft of the rotor is spun by hand. Most electrical energy we use today is produced by moving a magnet near a coil of wire (known as Faraday’s law of induction) to produce an electric current. Removing the permanent magnet casing reveals this design to use 9 separate copper windings. I made a transparent second rotor with six neodymium magnets- and when these magnets are made to move near the windings the LED again lights with the flow of current.
The set I used for this video is called Pocket Katamino and is available here
From Amazon: BUY NOW Pentominoes
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3D Pentominoes: the 12 possible arrangements of five identical squares, joined edge to edge, form the set of all pentominoes. Since 12x5=60, the pentominoes can tile a 6 x 10 rectangle with no gaps (2339 ways to do this- yet even finding one solution is a challenge). This set of colorful pentominoes is made so that the height of each piece is the same as the width of the constituent squares, such that 3D constructions can be made. Since 3x4x5=60 one can build a box with these dimensions (amazingly, 3940 ways to do this- but again, finding one is still a fun challenge).