Cheap But Awesome Science Toys

[Jolly_Penguin]

I have taken to collecting weird, cheap, but awesome science toys. My office has started to look a bit like the science centre. It keeps my guests constantly amused.

I have:

1. A newton's cradle, of course

2. A few ferro fluid displays, which is iron microparticles diluted in oil, so its like magnetic oil.

3. A mirascope illusion frog toy. This is two parabolic mirrors facing one another with a hole cut in one and a tiny plastic frog in between the mirrors. It projects a fully 3-D image of the frog above the mirrors so you can pass your hand right through it and it really freaks people out. I want to make of of these as big as a house so a full sized human being could be the image and you could toss a frisbee through your friend.

4. A magnetic floating globe. This is just magnetism fighting gravity to get a globe (or any ball would do) in just the right place so it hovers in mid air without touching anything.

5. A plasma ball that lights up

6. A lava lamp (hippy dippy!)

7. One of those old drinking birds. You've all seen them.

8. An eco-sphere. This is brine shrimp encased in glass, with bacteria and some plant life in there making up a self contained ecosystem. Its supposed to be modelled after the earth, but I think its just a slow death for the shrimp..... Not sure about this one and don't think I'll replace it once they die off. That said, they've been going for a lone time. Have had the sphere for 4 years.

Can anybody think of anything I am missing that I absolutely must have in my collection of cheap but awesome science toys?

 

[Malintent]

Looking at the kind of things you already have, I think this would fit in very nicely with your collection...

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4QcyW-qTUg[/YOUTUBE]

.. it is just a high resolution printout, folded in such a way that when viewed from various angles, the head appears to turn and "follow" you.

Imagine people walking by and noticing it "follow" them... good conversation starter...

here is how it is made (with a single piece of paper and scissors)...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSANPKYMBiM[/youtube]

 

[Subsymbolic]

I'd get a gyroscope in there and perhaps a hero's engine powered boat. The other thing is one of those solar windmills - I keep one in my office for the occasional nut who think they can move it with the power of their mind. I explain that this is moved by a few photons and they can't interfere with is as it's in a vacuum. No evidence yet...

Oh and a Stirling engine, they really rock.

 

[bilby]

I'd get a gyroscope in there and perhaps a hero's engine powered boat. The other thing is one of those solar windmills - I keep one in my office for the occasional nut who think they can move it with the power of their mind. I explain that this is moved by a few photons and they can't interfere with is as it's in a vacuum. No evidence yet...

Oh and a Stirling engine, they really rock.

Crooke's Vanes (aka Crooke's Radiometer, aka solar mill) is not moved by photons (if it was, it would turn the other way). The motive force is from the few gas molecules left in the evacuated bulb; the light absorbed by the black side makes it warmer, and the resulting thermal transpiration makes it spin - it's the recoil due to gas molecules, not the recoil due to photons, that makes it go.

If it contained a perfect vacuum (and has a low enough friction in the bearing), it would turn the other way due to photon momentum. But it doesn't, so it doesn't.

 

[Elixir]

I'd get a gyroscope in there and perhaps a hero's engine powered boat. The other thing is one of those solar windmills - I keep one in my office for the occasional nut who think they can move it with the power of their mind. I explain that this is moved by a few photons and they can't interfere with is as it's in a vacuum. No evidence yet...

Oh and a Stirling engine, they really rock.

Crooke's Vanes (aka Crooke's Radiometer, aka solar mill) is not moved by photons (if it was, it would turn the other way). The motive force is from the few gas molecules left in the evacuated bulb; the light absorbed by the black side makes it warmer, and the resulting thermal transpiration makes it spin - it's the recoil due to gas molecules, not the recoil due to photons, that makes it go.

If it contained a perfect vacuum (and has a low enough friction in the bearing), it would turn the other way due to photon momentum. But it doesn't, so it doesn't.

Always wondered about that since I was taught incorrectly that it was the "light pressure" from reflected photons. Wondered why then, the black sides of the vanes would't be more pow'ful since they absorb...

Anyhow... my cool toy would be a ram pump that I could put in the river and water the field that lies 8-10 feet above it's average level...



ETA: the "Drinking bird" aka Dunking Dodo...
I helped a friend build one of those out of two huge propane tanks and a 10' piece of 8" steel pipe, all welded together with baffles, and filled with freon (this was back when you could get freon).
It actually worked - and when that cold end came down, it was a mighty thunk indeed. He had envisioned a row of them on a camshaft out in a desert, generating electricity with one end in the sun (painted black of course) and the other in the shade. The vision was never realized, but I can tellya that was one helluva dunking dodo!

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

A gyroscope I must get. Hero's engine seems not too office appropriate since water needs to be added.

I also have a glass "bubbler" that bubbles based on the heat from sitting in your hand.

I have seen posters where the eyes appear to follow you, but the whole head? I don't see your link ( maybe cuz I am on my phone). Curious how that works . Oh now I know ( googled it). That's a pretty cool illusion.

I do have a bunch of optical illusion posters.

 

[skepticalbip]

Not so sciency but fun to have on the desk for visitors.

 

[Angry Floof]

Magnet balls. I have several different kinds of magnets hanging around on my desk. Two pipes made of four magnetic pieces, and also some magnetic torpedoes, which are easy to break unfortunately, but still work as a magnet to hold my needles and things.

Magnet balls are my favorite. I'd love to have this huge set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcOgozxv8K4

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Magnet balls. I have several different kinds of magnets hanging around on my desk. Two pipes made of four magnetic pieces, and also some magnetic torpedoes, which are easy to break unfortunately, but still work as a magnet to hold my needles and things.

Magnet balls are my favorite. I'd love to have this huge set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcOgozxv8K4

I forgot about those! Those are fun!

Also marble rollercoasters are fun. They can get very elaborate if you are creative.

 

[Malintent]

A gyroscope I must get. Hero's engine seems not too office appropriate since water needs to be added.

I also have a glass "bubbler" that bubbles based on the heat from sitting in your hand.

I have seen posters where the eyes appear to follow you, but the whole head? I don't see your link ( maybe cuz I am on my phone). Curious how that works . Oh now I know ( googled it). That's a pretty cool illusion.

I do have a bunch of optical illusion posters.

It is a 3 dimensional object (folded from a flat printout). Looks like a model sitting on your desk that turns it whole head to follow you.

 

[Malintent]

Not so sciency but fun to have on the desk for visitors.

Funny, I just recently posted a lego version of the useless machine in another thread.... here it is:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xCd55oSgO4[/youtube]

and then he made another useless machine to challenge the useless machine:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5y1pdPVDx8[/youtube]

 

[Derec]

Always wondered about that since I was taught incorrectly that it was the "light pressure" from reflected photons. Wondered why then, the black sides of the vanes would't be more pow'ful since they absorb...

Actually since momentum of a photon (or anything else) is a vector, a perfect reflector would mean twice the momentum transfer than a perfect absorber. That is because an incoming photon (p=h/λ) being absorbed means that its momentum is transferred to the vane (conservation of momentum). But if the photon is reflected in the opposite direction, the reflected photon has momentum of p=-h/λ and thus the change in momentum of the vane must be twice as much to conserve momentum. So a 4 vane setup with a black and shiny side would (in principle at least) rotate with shiny sides moving away from the light source.
This is also why laser-powered sail spacecraft would use a sail with mirror-like finish.

 

[Worldtraveller]

You should add one of those thermometers based on the fluid density with multiple floating spheres (I forget what they're called).

 

[Malintent]

You should add one of those thermometers based on the fluid density with multiple floating spheres (I forget what they're called).

It's a Galileo Thermometer

 

[Bomb#20]

This is also why laser-powered sail spacecraft would use a sail with mirror-like finish.

Well, that, and the consequence of dumping a hundred gigawatts into your sail instead of reflecting it...