Physics

Oobleck for Potholes

Oobleck for Potholes

A group Case Western Reserve University undergraduates have created a waterproof Kevlar-reinforced pouch filled with shear-thickening fluid that can be simply dropped into a pothole to effect a quick fix. Under its own weight, the goo flows to take the shape of the pothole. But when a car drives over, it thickens in response to the applied force and supports the weights.

Continue Reading
Bones of Blue Plasma

Bones of Blue Plasma

Part of a series of skeletal gas discharge lamps from sculptor Eric Franklin. This one is called Embodiment. Franklin’s work makes a nice compliment to Jessica Lloyd-Jones’ neon organs, which we posted about last week.

Continue Reading
How-To: Hardware Store Sand Pendulum

How-To: Hardware Store Sand Pendulum

MAKE regular David Prutchi shows how his ten-year-old daughter and he remade an expensive “designer” sand pendulum using hardware-store components.

Continue Reading
MAKE Confetti Party with Kinect/Box2D Mashup

MAKE Confetti Party with Kinect/Box2D Mashup

For the upcoming Vancouver Mini Maker Faire fundraiser party tonight, Vincent van Haaff made a fun confetti party with openFrameworks.

Continue Reading
How-To: Low-Cost Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer

How-To: Low-Cost Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer

DIY physics guru David Prutchi coveted one of the expensive professional-grade gyroscopic camera stabilizers made by Kenyon Laboratories. “These devices,” he observes, “don’t seem to have changed much since Kenyon’s founder filed the following two patents in the 50′s: US2811042, US2570130.” Referencing those patents, David reverse-engineered the basic geometry of the Kenyon stabilizer using a pair of inexpensive precision gyroscopes from Glenn Turner of gyroscopes.com.

Continue Reading
Make: Projects – Invisible Glass Photography

Make: Projects – Invisible Glass Photography

I wanted an unusual shot to show off the results from my recent soda can label embossing project, and had some success using this unusual method. There is a classic physics demonstration, sometimes disguised as a bit of stage magic, in which pieces of glass are made to disappear by immersion in a liquid that […]

Continue Reading