Dot Animation Card
Five animations to choose from- collect them all!
From Art fo Play: BUY NOW: Dot Animation Cards
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Dot Animation Cards: a unique version of barrier-grid (kinegram) animation where a matrix of holes allows only some of the dots on the covered card to show in succession producing the appearance of motion. In this clever design rotating the card with dots by 180 degrees reveals a second animation. Affordable kinetic art by Shigeki Naito that plays on the psychophysics of vision.
Chil Balance Sculpture
This elegant design comes ready to assemble in your choice of four colors:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Chil Balance Bird
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Chil Balance Sculpture: the mass and orientation of the wings creates a center of mass below this sleek bird's beak- making a system that will rotate and oscillate about a stable equilibrium. No magnets! An elegant sculpture by artist Bin Xu of BinDesign that comes ready to assemble complete with stand,
Hoberman Actuator with Sphere
The Actuator mechanism is out of production but can still be found on eBay, comes with power supply, Expandagon kit, and connecotors that snap on to a Hoberman Sphere
The spheres are still in production and come in various sizes and colors:
From Amazon: BUY NOW Hoberman Spheres
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Hoberman Actuator with Sphere: This actuator mechanism creates kinetic art out of a Hoberman sphere, designed to smoothly expand and contract the isokinentic structure. The Hoberman sphere itself is a special assembly of foldable linkages consisting of rigid bars and simple hinges is kinematically over constrained- motion can only occur along the radial direction and the movement of any hinge creates motion in all the joints. The engineering and physics behind deployable space structures!
Gifeez: Modern Phenakistiscope
This amazing toy for under $10:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Gifeez Animation Toy
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Gifeez: a modern zoetrope type device with built in strobe light to explore the physics and psychophysics of motion animation- still images flashed in rapid succession produces the illusion of motion through persistence of vision. This inexpensive device has two modes: 1) the strobe frequency is set to various ratios of the spin frequency creating fascinating motion of abstract geometrical images, and 2) the strobe is set to animate simple cartoons. When the image flash rate is above the flicker fusion frequency (approximately 16Hz) we perceive fluid motion- the basis for all movies and TV. This device includes a centripetal switch that turns on the strobe and a motor that keeps the disk spinning for a couple minutes and comes with 15 printed double sided disks and a few blanks to allow for your own designs.
Rheoscopic Planet
Avalable in five colors! Get one here:
From Mr. Sci (Science Factory): Rheoscopic Planet
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Rheoscopic Planet: this example of fluid flow kinetic art uses rheoscopic fluid encased in flexible bubble of plastic to reveal the intricate motion of turbulence. A suspension of tiny flat mica crystals tend to align themselves at the boundaries where the fluid is moving comparatively faster or slower, making the typically invisible flow patterns visible. Another unique science toy from @mrscisciencefactory
Pocket Scintillator Kinetic Art
Logan sometimes has items for sale here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: PocketScintillators
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Pocket Scintillator Card: three sheets of seemingly random arrays of translucent colored pixels produce words and images when stacked- shift the stack of sheets and a second images appears! Innovative kinetic optical art by inventor, artist, software developer Logan Kerby @thanksplease who kindly sent me these cards encoded with @physicsfun themes.
Rolling Marble Sculpture
Similar innovative rolling ball sculptures available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Marble Machine
From Etsy: BUY NOW: 3D Printed Marble Runs
See more (miniture) marble runs here: Marble Run Fun
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Rolling Marble Sculpture: marbles perform gymnastics as potential energy of gravity is converted to kinetic energy. An elegantly designed auger conveyor, an Archimedes' Screw, brings the marbles back to the top (powered by an AA battery and a small motor). Conservation of angular momentum produces a simulation of decaying orbits as the marbles whirl down the the main funnel shaped feature.
Fog Globe: Golden Gate Bridge
Get a fog globe here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Fog Globe
Fog Globe: an ideal souvenir for a San Francisco winter- snow is very rare (1976 recoded one inch downtown) but prolonged fog marks the winter season. The “fog” in this globe consists of small glitter particles of uniform density that can be agitated into temporary suspension and then allowed to settle on the bottom giving the impression of dissipating fog. The particles settle out over the span of a couple minutes and at regular rate since they are fairly uniform and the drag force experienced by the particles depends on the size and weight of each.
Uplift Kinetic Spiral
The second generation of this amazing device is now available here:
From beuplifted.com: BUY NOW: Uplift 2.0
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Uplift and Uplift 2.0: a spiral kinetic sculpture under glass, mounted on precision bearings and powered by light. The rotation is propelled silently by a simple and elegant bidirectional motor- a disk shaped copper coil impels an array of six neodymium magnets, powered by a single solar cell. The included hand held magnet allows one to select the direction of flow.
EDC Gyroscope
Precision machined stainless steel gyroscopic spinners avaialbe here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: EDC Gyroscope
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EDC Gyroscope: a metal rotator spins freely within a gimbal arrangement and features precision bearings used throughout (1 ball bearing in core plus 4 micro-bearings in the intermediate ring). Spin up the center gyro and conservation of angular momentum will keep its axis of rotation pointing in a constant direction even as the outer rings are rotated to and fro. Precision machined from stainless steel- the ultimate spinner!
Uplift 2.0
This amazing device now available here:
From ArtofPlay: BUY NOW: Uplift 2.0
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Uplift 2.0: light powered kinetic sculpture with mesmerizing apparent translational motion due to rotation of a spiral element under glass and mounted on precision bearings. The rotation is propelled silently by a simple and elegant bidirectional motor- a disk shaped copper coil which interacts with an array of six neodymium magnets and powered by a single solar cell. The included hand held magnet allows one to select the direction of flow. A stunning creation for any windowsill by artist and inventor Tom Lawton.
Reuleaux Rotor
This toy is availble from Amazon Japan and will ship to the US:
From Amazon.jp: BUY NOW: Reuleaux Rotor Wodden Toy
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Reuleaux Rotor: this famous curve of constant width, the Reuleaux triangle, can rotate such that at all times it remains in contact with all four sides of a square. As demonstrated by this wooden toy from Japan, the rotor covers approximately 98.77% of the area of the square, missing only the sharp corners. The curves in the corners are in the shape of an elliptical arc. Fun fact: a Reuleaux triangle has a perimeter equal to pi times its width- just like a circle!
Slow Dance
This finally crated kinetic art piece avaiable here:
From Art of Play: BUY NOW: Slow Dance
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Slow Dance: a kinetic sculpture via induced vibration and high speed strobe lighting in which objects exhibit subtle and beautiful motion when mounted within this special frame. I love how the electromagnet, with its beautiful copper windings, is prominently featured at the bottom of the frame. Electronics within the frame send AC currents to the electromagnet which then pushes and pulls magnets on each side. These magnets are affixed to leaf springs to which feathers, flowers, and other objects are attached with elastic bands. The arrangement is then illuminated by LEDs set to strobe at just the right frequency to produce the slow dance illusion.
KaleidoFlow Fluid Display Cell: The Glorb
KaleidoFlow fluid and associated devices available here:
From Laminar Sciences Corp: BUY NOW: KaleidoFlow Rheoscopic Fluid
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KaleidoFlow Fluid Cell: the phenomenon of streaming birefringence colorfully reveals the temporary sheer stresses induced in a liquid by a moving plastic sphere. The “Glorb” device design features a cylindrical cell with polarizing filters as the top and bottom windows and filled with this special rheoscopic fluid and a plastic bead. This assembly then slides into a base with white LEDs to supply backlighting. Many thanks to Laminar Sciences Corp for supplying this beautiful display cell and bottles of KaleidoFlow fluid for experimentation.
Sp!n Top
Get a Sp!n Top here:
From Art of Play: BUY NOW: Sp!n Top
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Sp!n Top: once set into motion the eye only perceives the punctuation mark ! in the center of a ring, with the vertical line seemingly suspended in space above the dot. The rate of spin is above the flicker fusion threshold of human vision, and the crossbars become blurred out and invisible- the effect is even more pronounced in person (hard to capture on video). Physics and psychophysics combine to produce this wonderful illusion!
Zoetrope
Get a similar affordable Zoetrope from these sources:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Zoetrope
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Zoetrope
Note: this site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Zoetrope: the physics and psychophysics of motion animation- still images flashed in rapid succession produces the illusion of motion through persistence of vision. The slits are crucial to creating the illusion by blacking out the visual stimulus for a short duration- 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.
Oloids: Solid and Anit-oloid
Order your Anti-Oliod today: available in three types of metal:
From The Matter Collection: ORDER NOW: Anti-Oloids in Brass, Copper, and Steel
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Oloids: “solid hull” and “ruled surface” types made from brass and copper- oloids are unique solids that roll in such a way that every point on their surface comes in contact with the plane. The basis of the oliod’s geometry is that of two connected circles, one perpendicular to the other such that the rim of each circle goes through the center of the other. The shapes you see here are the results of connecting the rims of these circles together with a family of straight lines, one method leads to the solid convex hull form, and another way leads to the ruled oloid (anti-oloid).
Rolling Ball Fountain
Find this and similar fountains here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Rolling Ball Fountain
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Rolling Ball Fountain: this miniature kugel fountain features a glass sphere that sits on a socket of precisely similar shape, and is suspended on a very thin (less than half a mm) film of moving water which greatly reduces friction. The velocity of the water in the thin layer slows as it spreads out via a hole in the socket, and this hole is offset from the center so that the interaction with the water stream sets the ball spinning. A small pump provides the flow rate, and colorful LEDs illuminate the glass sphere to show off the rotation. Perhaps you’ve seen public art installations featuring giant granite spheres weighing tons and yet similarly suspended on a thin layer of flowing water. Physics principles involved here include viscosity and Reynold’s number, the Navier-Stokes equation, Bernoulli’s principle and the study of thin layer lubricants.