Budget physics

Mag Flip Inverted Pendulum Fidget

Available from this fine vendor:

From Etsy: BUY NOW: Mag Flip Desk Toy

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Mag Flip Inverted Pendulum Fidget: three embedded neodymium magnets provide tactile repulsive forces in this simple but intriguing system. Pressing down on one side increases the magnetic potential energy that will then send the pendulum into frantic motion until the kinetic energy is damped out after a series of oscillations. This fidget can also be used as a random coin flip with respect to which side it will land. 

 

Convection Turbine Candle with Elephants 

Get similar candles here (many themes to choose from):

From Etsy: BUY NOW: Spinning tea-light candle

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Spinning tea-light candle

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Convection Turbine Candle: pachyderms on parade via this whimsical tea-light candle holder which is actually a simple turbine heat engine where rotational motion results from the convection of hot air from the candle flame. All moving parts are of thin stainless steel with some assembly required. Energy transfer: chemical bonds- to heat- to kinetic energy of the rising air- to rotational kinetic energy of the turbine and elephants. 

Spirograph Animator

Get this amazing and inexpensive toy here:

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Spirograph Animator

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Spirograph Animator: a turntable adds an ingenious embellishment to this classic math toy. When the centerpiece is put into rotation a strobe light turns on and the cyclic designs spring into a complex dance. Spirographs produce mathematical roulette curves called hypotrochoids, cyclical designs that repeat at varying integer multiples. When the strobe light frequency, and rotation frequency, match up with an integer multiple of one of the patterns, that roulette curve appears stationary while the other patterns stay in motion. Shown here is but one combination of many possible overlapping patterns that can be produced by the supplied set of gears and colored pens. 


Fluorescein v. Laser Frequency

Need a laser pointer? Incredibly, you can get 3 (one of each color) for under $20 (including S&H): 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Red+Green+Purple Laser Pointer

Make you own fluorescent solution with this powder: 
From STEMCell Science: BUY NOW: Fluorescein Powder

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Fluorescein v. Laser Frequency: exploring how this famous fluorescent dye reacts to three frequencies of laser pointer using this unique liquid filled paperweight. Under Green (532 nm) we see some mild yellow fluorescence as the beam transmits through the liquid, under Red (635 nm) the beam transmits with no reaction, but under near UV Blue (450 nm) the beam is completely absorbed near the liquid surface and re-emitted in bright green with a peak at 515nm. A fun home experiment to explore quantum physics phenomena with inexpensive apparatus.

Nautilus Spiral Gears

Get this inexpensive 3D printed set here:

From Etsy: BUY NOW: Nautilus Gear Set

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Nautilus 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 3D print of Misha Tikh and the research of Balint et al. 

Balancing Seabird 

Get this carved wooden bird here:

From Etsy: BUY NOW: Balance Seagull

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Balancing Seabird: this bird balances on its tail rather than its beak in this variation of the famous physics toy. The weight of the elongated wings creates a center of mass below the bird’s tail- making a system in stable equilibrium. No magnets used or needed! This hand carved and painted bird comes with this optimal display stand. Inexpensive physics fun!


RGB Lightpipe Bracelet

Get a blank bracelet here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Color Changing RGB Bracelet

Personalized bracelets avialable here: BUY NOW: Color Changing Personalized Bracelet

Get this diffraction grating here to explore light source spectra:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: 500 line/mm diffraction grating

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RGB Lightpipe Rave Bracelet: three LEDs (red, green,blue) combine to make an entire pallet of colors that are transmitted through the translucent band via internal reflection and refraction like a fiber optic cable. A diffraction grating reveals the variety of colors produced is simply a mixture of red, green, and blue (note that white = R+B+G), the same way pixels on your phone or laptop use RGB mixing to produce color images. The bracelet can be personalized and has a magnetic clasp- fun physics for your next rave! 

 

Fidget Star

Get this fun piece in metallic PLA here:

From Etsy: BUY NOW: Fidget Star

Or print it yourself:

From Thingverse: Fidget Star .stl file

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Fidget Star: 12 nested and captured 8-point stars create this wonderfully satisfying kinetic art manipulation toy. Each star is trapped within the next through ingenious design and 3D printing. A creation of maker and artist Chuck Hilliard @chuuckaduuck.

Crushmetric Pen

Available here:

From Crushmetric: BUY NOW: Crushmetric Pen

From Art of Play: BUY NOW: Switch Pen

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Crushmetric Switch Pen: functional kinetic art based on materials science and tessellation origami techniques. The crushed state can be reversed over and over in this incredible design by artist/inventor Noah Deledda, also known for his similar sculptures created from aluminum cans. New wonderful and affordable physics art that is also a practical ballpoint pen.


Photochromic Frisbee

Get this quality flying disk here:

From Amazon: BUY NOW: UV Chameleon by Discraft

You may also want a powerful UV flashlight:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: High Power UV Light

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Photochromic Frisbee: the plastic of the UV Chameleon by Discraft contains photochromic pigment molecules that actually change shape when struck by photons of UV light, and the new shape alters their absorption properties such that they reflect a deep purple color. The color is temporary- room temperature thermal energy bumps the molecules back into their original configuration, and the color fades back to white in about 3 minutes (shown here sped up x7). A long wave UV flashlight is used to “paint” the disk purple, and sunlight will do the same very quickly.

Skew Dice (d6 and d12)

Get these skew dice here:

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Skew d6 set
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Skew d12 set

Click here for other amazing dice.

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Skew Dice (d6 and d12): these dice are skewed- but their odds aren’t! 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 of the skew d6s are a special type of polyhedra called asymmetric trigonal trapezohedra, and these d12s are tetrahedic pentagon dodecahedrons (swipe). These skew forms come in right and left handed versions(swipe twice) and these sets come with one of each mirror image. What allows these shapes to be fair like a cube has to do with their 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 team of Robert Fathauer and Henry Segerman.


Vortex by Lava Lamp

A DIY kit by the makers of Lava Lamp, home experimentation set with booklet of ideas to try:

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Lava Lamp LED Vortex kit

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Vortex Lamp: a simple whirlpool powered by a magnetic stirrer like those in a chemistry lab and lit by LEDs. A DIY kit by Lava Lamp brand- which comes with glitter and beads, but I found the water vortex alone was mesmerizing to watch. Note the intricately changing structure of the vortex in the slow motion close up. 

In-Feed Google

Quantum Re-Excitation: Phosphorescence 

Need a UV laser pointer? Get 3 lasers (one of each color) for under $10: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW red+green+blue(UV) laser pointers

Get inexpensive phosphorescent sheet material here: 
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Glow-in-the-dark sheet

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Quantum Re-Excitation: a green laser should not normally be able to induce a phosphorescent glow, but if the material is already excited a green laser can re-excite it as seen here. Glow-in-the-dark phosphorescence is a quantum mechanical phenomenon where high energy photons (like those from a near UV laser pointer) are absorbed by electrons which are then boosted to higher energy levels. The glow comes from these electrons emitting lower energy photons (green in this case) as they jump down through a series of energy levels back towards their ground state. If an electron is only partially down the cascade path, lower energy photons from a green laser can bump it back up to the excited state. Quantum mechanics is all about discrete jumps in energy like what is happening here. 


Triple Pendulum Chaotic Fidget 

Get this chaotic fidget spinner here:

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Triple Pendulum Spinner

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Triple Pendulum Chaotic Fidget: This interesting spinner is made from stainless steel and features three physical pendulums each mounted with their own low friction bearing. In slow motion one can see the kinetic energy and angular momentum is transferred from one pendulum to another as the entire device rotates, with some spinning rapidly and others rotationally at rest- the intricacies chaotic motion, characterized by extreme sensitivity to initial starting conditions, tiny differences in how the system is released leads to dramatically different outcomes each time.

Magnetic Chaotic Pendulum

Currently available here: From Amazon: BUY NOW Magnetic Chaotic Pendulum 

Chick here for similar chaotic systems

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Magnetic Chaotic Pendulum: adding magnetic forces to gravity gives this pendulum chaotic motion- not random, but very sensitive to slight differences in initial launch conditions. Arranging the dipoles magnets on the base leads to different patterns of motion- here the center magnet attracts and the rest are set to repel. ROMP pendulum by Hog Wild toy company. 

Moiré Kinetic Wheel

Get this device (and other variations) here:

From Amazon: BUY NOW: Moiré Fidget Device

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Moiré Kinetic Wheel: sold as a fidget toy this device has two plastic disks and each has a pattern of curved spokes that can rotate independently and produce interesting illusions of motion via moiré interference effects. Explore constructive and deconstructive interference patterns with this minimalist toy.