Available from Pyrigan & Co.
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Lissajous Roller Illusion
Lissajous Roller: when viewing this 3D printed object from the side one sees a projection of a 3:2 Lissajous curve, but the object is actually cylindrical in frame and can roll towards or away from the viewer. When in motion a “dual axis illusion” is produced where the object appears to be rotating about a vertical axis. Invented by Bill Gosper and produced by Pyrigan & Co.
Get this Pegasus, and many other automata (dragons, fish, flying pigs!) from Keith Newstead's Etsy store:
From Etsy: BUY NOW
Automata Kinetic Art by Newstead
Pegasus Automaton: Turn a crank and this metal pterippus takes flight using simple mechanisms in what mechanical engineers call a closed kinematic chain. In his elegantly crafted automata, artist Keith Newstead uses a crank connected to linkages with multiple joints to translate rotational motion to choreographed linear and oscillatory motions.
This elegant design comes ready to assemble in your choice of four colors:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Chil Balance Bird
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,
Click here to visit this amazing Etsy shop Element83
Get a magnetic levitation sculpture here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW Diamagnetic Levitation Sculptures
Eclipse: A diamagnetic levitation sculpture by Element83. Cast from diamagnetic Bismuth, a golden spherical neodymium magnet levitates trapped in a tunnel within the metal. Diamagnetic substances only have magnetic fields of their own when placed in an external magnetic field from another source- here the sphere magnet supplies the field. Diamagnetic fields are pretty weak though so a powerful cube neodymium magnet sits above the tunnel and is adjusted to help lift the sphere magnet against gravity. Trapped in equilibrium by these fields, any other magnet brought near will change the balance. ?Another amazing creation by Ernie McElhannon.
Available on Etsy: BUY NOW Gold Ferrofluid Cell
Golden Ferrofluid: colloidal ferromagnetic liquid in a specially prepared water-alcohol suspension. Curious behavior results from the interplay between magnetic force and surface tension. I'm still investigating the gold coloring and the specific makeup of the clear suspension fluid- both trade secrets it seems. The gold color appears to be a thin coating at the boundary between the ferrofluid and the suspension liquid.
This industrial grade museum quality device available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Giant Newton's Cradle
Regular sized Newton's cradles availabe here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Newton's Cradle
Newton's Cradle: industrial model made with galvanized aircraft cable, aircraft aluminum for the frame, and 1.5 inch one-half pound nickel plated chrome steel spheres. (0.23 kg and 3.8cm in diameter each) The classic demonstration that shows the curious behavior due to conservation of both momentum and kinetic energy. Swipe to see comparison to standard version.
High quality kaleidocsopes available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Fine Art Kaleidoscopes
@physicsfun features a wide vatiety of kaleidoscopes (click to explore)
Hybrid Kaleidoscope: the beautiful symmetry of multiple reflections in a unique design- part teleidoscope (image from spherical lens) and part kaleidoscope (image from colorful objects in viewing cell). Invented by the famous Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), the kaleidoscope is an ultimate physics toy and entire field of artistic endeavor. This vintage find is labeled “C. Bennett Scopes for AKAG 1984”.
Get this 3D print here (your choice of colors):
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Satifying Hexagons
Satisfying Hexagons: this delightful kinetic art manipulation toy features 19 nested hexagons within a hexagonal frame. Embedded magnets allows one to move the central hexagon from behind creating interesting visual effects. A 3D print created by @i.am.the.lazy.engineer- indeed oddly satisfying!
Get this amazing top here:
From Etsy- ShirePostMint: BUY NOW Spinning USA Top
USA Copper Spinning Top: a ceramic silicon nitride sphere is precisely placed at the center of mass allowing this copper plate of the US to spin like a top. Stamped out of heavy 1/8 inch thick copper, spin times up to 4 minutes can be achieved. More physics magic by @shirepostmint !
This and other beautiful and well made puzzles are available on Etsy:
From Etsy: BUY NOW 10 Hex Puzzle
Two great resources about these polyhexs: polyform puzzler page and puzzleworld page
10 Hex Puzzle: this puzzle is comprised of pieces which are the set of all ways three and four hexagons can be joined with a common edge. There are 3 trihexs and 7 possible tetrahexs, and similar to pentominoes, these 10 polyhexs can assemble into a large hexagon. Amazingly there are exactly 12,290 solutions to this puzzle- but it’s still a challenge to find just one!
Get this demonstration puzzle here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Aristotle's Wheel
WIkipedia has some details on the Wheel "Paradox"
Aristotle’s Wheel “Paradox”: How does the smaller attached disk travel the same length as the larger one if both disks only make one full rotation? Note the shorter path of the smaller disk, if rolled on its own. This beautifully made demonstration depicts an issue of geometry and motion that perplexed the best minds of humanity for 2000 years. The ancients knew the formula for circumference, and C=2πR for the large disk is clearly greater than C=2πr for the smaller- so how could the smaller disk, rotated once, still travel the distance of the larger one if attached? The great Galileo even offered a solution to the problem in his book Two New Sciences, where he approximated the situation as concentric hexagons and considered the limit as the number of sides increased. So what is the best answer to make sense of this situation?
The .stl files are available here:
From Thingverse:
Origial desing by Emmett Lalish Download: Gear Bearing
Refined version featured here by Don Stewart Download: Honeycomb Gear Bearing
Similar prints available as fidget toys here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Gear Spinner Fidget Toy
3D Print Planetary Gearset: amazingly this gear set is printed assembled, with interlocking herringbone teeth. The gears will not come apart, in fact this design can only be accomplished by 3D printing the gears interlocked with each other. Designed and first printed by Emmett Lalish in 2013, and this version with refined precision and honeycomb by Don Stewart.
Kyle Auga-- kinetic sculptures:
Check out Kyle's art here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW Kyle's Kinetics
Surf's Up!: Another gravity defying creation by Kyle Auga, this time a well-balanced stainless steel surfer that carves waves in the air for over 10 minutes on one push! The surfer has the curious motion of a 3D physical pendulum- a complex motion which can be broken down into oscillations along two dimensions and rotation about the point of contact. The stick figure plus counterweights and bar structure is designed such that its center of mass is few centimeters below the contact point when at rest. When the sculpture is tipped the center of mass swings under the pivot point in this stable equilibrium condition- no magnets needed to create this physics magic.
Similar wine racks available here:
From Amazon: BUY NOW
Balance Wine Rack
Many well crafted versions avaulable here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW
Wine Bottle Balance
Well Balanced Cabernet: a carefully engineered acrylic version of this famous demonstration- the center of mass of the rack/wine bottle system is directly over the base providing unstable equilibrium for this balancing act. Suspended here is Hypothesis by Roots Run Deep, an excellent Napa cabernet sauvignon.
Some examples of O'Grady's vortex marbles are available on eBay:
From eBay: BUY NOW Vortex Marbles by Kevin O'Grady
A number of artists now offer vortex marble art on Etsy
From Etsy: BUY NOW Vortex Marbles
Vortex Marble: glass art intersects with the physics of optics in this lampwork art form invented by Kevin O’Grady circa 1994- and this marble bears his signature mark on the back. The clear glass face on these marbles acts as a convex lens giving the illusion that the spiral goes deeper than the diameter of the marble. Different kinds of dichroic glass (doped with thin layers of metals and oxides) is mixed in to the borosilicate marble to create the intense colors.
Another version of this puzzle available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW Two Marble Puzzle
From Amazon: BUY NOW: Two Marble Puzzle, or get this set of puzzles
Two Marble Puzzle: physics brain teaser- move both marbles to their top locations on each side simultaneously. The solution to this puzzle relies on some fun basic physics principles- can you figure out which ones? Swipe to reveal solution. Found this well made version of this classic physics puzzle at a gift shop in San Francisco (note Golden Gate Bridge motif).
Get this version here:
From Grand Illusions Ltd: Dudeney's Dissection
A nice wood version is available here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW Dudeney's Dissection
See both Wikipedia and Wolfram MathWorld for more details on the history and math of this geometrical oddity.
Dudeney's Dissection: an equilateral triangle can be cut (dissected) into four pieces that will then assemble into a square. Interestingly the four parts are all different in shape (the green and yellow pieces are similar but not the same). This hinged model is comprised of precision machined and anodized aluminum, and can be folded back and forth between the two simplest regular polygons. It is not known if a similar three piece dissection is possible. Also called the haberdasher's problem and described in 1907 by Henry Dudeney it is the only 4 piece solution known.