Jitter Gyro Ring
Available in "pro" metal version and colored rings version:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Jitter Gyro Ring
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Jitter Gyro Ring: a 1990s skill toy craze out of New Zealand that features small rings that "roll" down a thicker steel ring and making a characteristic chattering sound as they go. Swiping the small rings gets them spinning and gives them angular momentum. Centripetal acceleration then keeps the inside of the small rings in contact with the steel ring so that they roll around as they descend (seen here in 240fps slow motion). The challenge is to rotate the large ring fast enough to keep the small rings in motion.
Bubble in Viscous Fluid Kinetic Art
This item is a vintage art piece from the 1970s and unfortunately I do not know the artist. Similar devices currently on the market include the Ooze tube:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW: Ooze Tube
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Bubble in Viscous Fluid: vintage kinetic art piece from the 1970s- the rising bubble contorts around three ring shaped obstructions with peculiar motion. I love how this construction emphasizes the flow pattern of the air bubble. Another example of the surprising physics to be found in fluid motion.
Polage Display
Austine has an online gallery of her amazing work.
From Austine Studios: Polarized Light Art
This kit has everything needed to make your own polarization art:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Polarizing Film Kit
The kit also includes a birefringent crystal, colorful optically active mica sheets, and a polarimetry demo that reveals when structures are under stress. A great value for so much physics fun!
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Here is a very nice discussion about polarization that pertains to Polage: Experiments With Polarized Light by Donald E. Simanek
Polage Display: art with polarized light using polarizing sheets and cellulose to create changing forms and colors. Rotation of the filter allows the artist to produce colorful metamorphosis. This piece was created by Austine Wood Comarow- the main developer of this art form- as part of a campaign to promote Maui Jim polarized sunglasses. 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.
Viscoelastic Melting Snowman
Get the kit here!
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Melting Snowman Kit
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Viscoelastic "Melting Snowman": non-newtonian flow is demonstrated by these blobs of viscoelastic silicon polymer (aka Silly Putty) in the shape of snowman- if force is applied over a short period of time the substance shows elastic properties (bounces like a superball), but if the force is applied slowly the substance flows like a viscous liquid (flattens under gravity over a few hours as shown here). Thus this snowman does not melt because it is already liquid, one that flows slowly though. Mostly sold as a toy, Silly Putty was discovered after mixing boric acid with silicone oil during World War II in an attempt to find a rubber substitute.
Pop Pop Boat
Get one here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Pop-Pop Boat
From Amazon: BUY NOW Pop-Pop Boats
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Wikipedia has the details on the physics and history of this little steamboat toy
Pop-Pop Boat: birthday candle powered, super simple steam engine named after the sound it makes when operating. The engine is just a metal box, heated by the candle, with two pipes coming out of it. Steam builds up pushing water out with an explosive pop- which then creates a vacuum sucking more water in to repeat the process. Patented in 1915 these were very popular in the 1940's.
Lenz's Law
Get a similar kit here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Eddy Current tubes
Get some magnetic viewing film here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Magnetic Viewing Film
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Lenz's Law: a strong neodymium magnet falls slowly down a copper bus bar as though passing through a viscous liquid. Since magnetic fields pass through copper, magneview film reveals the location of the falling dipole magnet. Moving magnetic fields from the falling magnet produce electric currents in the copper. These currents then produce magnetic fields that have the opposite polarity to the initial field. So a falling magnet makes the copper pipe briefly into an electromagnet that repels the magnet. The rectangular copper “pipe” is from a water-cooled electromagnet power supply line, 1.5 x 2 in (4 x 5 cm) in cross-section, designed to supply a steady DC current of 5000 amps. This 40cm long piece weighs in at 6kg and has a 1.5cm diameter hole for cooling water to flow down its center. From a decommissioned particle accelerator magnet.
Viewing the Feel Flux Magnetic Field
Get this device here:
From feelflux.com: BUY NOW Feel Flux
Get some magnetic viewing film here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Magnetic Viewing Film
From Amazon: BUY NOW Magnetic Viewing Film
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Viewing the Feel Flux Magnetic Field: Magneview film reveals the powerful field of the neodymium magnet as it falls with terminal velocity through the copper tube of the Feel Flux toy.
Super Absorbent Polymer
Get some of these grow-spheres here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Growing Spheres
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Super Absorbent Polymer: poly-acrylamide polymer crystals are able to absorb up to 200 times their volume of water. Here seven small spheres, approximately 4mm in diameter, were immersed in water for three hours, after which they were slightly more than 23mm across. The final gel sphere is more than 99.5% water- and they bounce!
US Patriotic Radiometer
Radiometers are available from these sources:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Radiometer
A wide variety available here, including some nice blown glass displays:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Radiometers
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
US Patriotic Radiometer: 4th of July physics toy on this 242th year since the the Declaration of Independence. Produced in the 1970s by Kyp-go (maker of Balafire bulbs) the images spin with kinetic energy converted from light. 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 come into contact with it fly off at a faster speed imparting impulse to the rotor. Radiometers with special vanes like this are no longer in production but sometimes pop up for sale online as antiques.
Fluorescence and Birefringence in Calcite
Get a sample here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Optical Calcite Crystal
Get inexpensive polarizing filters here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Polarizing Filter Sheets
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Fluorescence and Birefringence in Calcite: two samples of calcite- each with different impurities that produce blue fluorescence for the small crystal and red fluorescence for the larger one under a 405nm violet laser. Also one can clearly see that the single laser beam takes two paths through the crystals- the speed of light in a calcite crystal depends on polarization because the refractive index is different depending on the polarization orientation of the light transmitted through it (swipe for demonstration). As a polarizing filter is rotated 90 degrees, one image appears and the other vanishes, showing that the polarization orientation of the light of the two images is indeed perpendicular. In addition the elegant rhombohedral nature of calcite crystals is obvious in this sample.
Heat Pipe
The heat pipe kit includes the pipe and a copper rod:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Heat Pipe Demo Kit
Get a heat pipe here (various sizes and shapes):
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Heat Pipe
Here is the liquid crystal sheet used in the video (range 20-25C):
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW liquid crystal thermometer sheet
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Heat Pipe: a device that transfers heat with great efficiency- as demonstrated by this fantastic kit from @educational_innovations . Here a liquid crystal goes from green (room temp) to black (near freezing) showing the heat transfer to a piece of ice through a heat pipe (top) and a similar sized piece of solid copper rod (bottom). As you can see the heat pipe cools much faster than the copper rod even though copper is an excellent conductor of heat. The heat pipe is a thin shell of copper that surrounds a tube of sponge like material filled with some water vapor and sealed with a low pressure inside. The heat is transferred from one end to the other by the phase transition of water- at the warm end water in the sponge evaporates into vapor absorbing heat energy, the vapor travels down the hollow core to the cold end where it condenses into liquid releasing heat energy. The water is wicked by the sponge to the warm end and the process repeats. Heat pipes like this one pull heat away from the CPUs in modern computers preventing them from melting. The amazing heat transfer ability is clearly felt in the fingertips if one places the copper rod and heat pipe into a glass of ice water-the heat pipe immediately gets cold!
Polarizing Filter Black Wall Illusion
Amazon lists acrylic tubing at a reasonable price: get a 2 foot long tube with an inner diameter of 1.5 inches for about $17 US. This will accommodate a large marble for the demonstration.
From Amazon: BUY NOW Acrylic Tubing
For a 1.5 inch inner diameter (3.8 cm) tube you will need a 10 inch (25.4 cm) wide sheet to complete a cylinder inside the tube.
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Polarizing Film
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Polarizing Filter Black Wall Illusion: two sheets of polarizing film (with polarization axes oriented at 90 degrees to each other) create this illusion inside an acrylic tube. Physics magic!
Thermochromic Chiral Liquid Crystals
Available here:
Liquid crystal sheets, thermochromic fun!:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW liquid crystal thermometer sheet
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Thermochromic Chiral Liquid Crystals: the thin layer changes color as the molecules of the liquid crystal change orientation and spacing during the phase transition from liquid (warm) to crystal (cool).
Iron Filings in Silicone Oil Suspension
Available from these fine sources:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Magnetic Field Viewer Set (get the demo set)
Similar device here:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Magnetic Field Viewer with Magnet
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Iron Filings in Silicone Oil Suspension ( Iron filing field detector ): visualizing the invisible- the magnetic field lines around a horseshoe magnet. In the presence of a magnetic field, ferromagnetic materials (such as iron) temporarily become magnets. Here the iron filings become dipole magnets and link up and align like tiny compass needles to follow and reveal the magnetic field lines associated with the permanent magnet underneath. Viscous silicone oil temporarily keeps the iron particles suspended yet allows for rotation and repositioning under the influence of the magnetic field.
Diamagnetic Trap Sculpture
This particular sculpture is no longer available, however, Educational Innovations has this nice and affordable starter kit:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Diamagnetic Levitation Kit
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Diamagnetic Trap Sculpture: a thin disk of pyrolytic graphite hovers and spins in stable equilibrium over a bullseye configuration of magnetic poles. Diamagnetic substances become temporary magnets while immersed in an external magnetic field, and the created diamagnetic field always opposes the external field (in contrast to ferromagnetic substances like iron which attract). Graphite of this type is one of the strongest diamagnets known, and will levitate over a powerful array of neodymium magnets. ✨With sincere appreciation to Tim Rowett for this kind gift.
Reaction Rocket
The essence of a great physics toy: simple inexpensive design showing complex physics
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Reaction Rocket
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Reaction Rocket: projectile launch via momentum transfer in slow motion. The superball/straw base bounces off the table top and then immediately collides with the bottom of the rocket sending it off with a velocity slightly less than 3 times the velocity of the rising ball (true if the ball is more than three times the mass of the rocket). Newton's third law in action! Note that the rocket rises much higher than the drop height (up to 9 times higher).
Plasma Globe
Plasma globes are now available in many sizes and levels of quality. Here is a source for reasonably priced quality globes:
From Educational Innovations: BUY NOW Plasma Globe
From Amazon: BUY NOW Plasma Globes
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Plasma Globe: low pressure noble gasses exhibit glow discharge from high voltage, creating plasma filaments that rise upward due to heating- shown here in slow motion. A small high frequency coil at center creates the high voltage potential between the center electrode and the metal coated glass globe. Current flow through the thin gas produces the colorful emission spectra from the gasses