This video popped into my feed this morning as I sipped my coffee, waiting for my kids to shuffle their way to the breakfast table before school. As I watched this with them, completely mesmerized, I realized that you can make every single one of these effects at home! So often, my kids find our experiments to be cool, but rarely crossing that boundary into AWESOME! The delivery in this video, however, had them convinced that these projects were awesome indeed!
I’ll break down the video and share tutorials so you can also recreate these awesome things at home.
Chladni Plate
The opening of the video shows a plate, covered in tiny particles, creating cool patterns in response to music. This is called a Chladni plate. Here’s a tutorial on how to make one out of an old speaker.
Standing Wave Water Trick
Unlke the others in this video, this effect doesn’t look interesting to your eyes when you’re viewing it in person. The standing wave water trick relies on the shutter speed of your camera to create the illusion.
Dancing Oobleck
There are several instances of this effect in the video. The principal is the same as the Chladni plate above, however this time he’s using a liquid. It appears to be motor oil. When we explored this fun experiment, we created a slightly more interesting result by using non-newtonian fluids called Oobleck. It is suprisingly easy and you can find out how to do it here.
Of course, if you like his result better, just substitute motor oil for the oobleck.
Ruben’s Tube
The tube covered in flames that appear to dance to the music is very impressive indeed. This is called a Ruben’s Tube and relies on the pressure differences created by the speakers as they vibrate. You can make one in an afternoon by following these directions.
It was a bit windy the night we played with ours during a live broadcast back in 2011, but you can see some good action around 5:20
Tesla Coils
Ah, the good ol’ tesla coil! If you haven’t seen a tesla coil by now, you really need to check them out. Not only are they amazingly beautiful, they’re incredibly dangerous too. Note that he is wearing a special suit to keep from being hurt. Don’t try that at home. However, if you do want to try something at home, here’s how to build your own tesla coil!
ADVERTISEMENT
