Maker Faire

Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth — a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the maker movement.

Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these people come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned.

Explore below to see the best of Maker Faire, and head to makerfaire.com for more information.

Thermite Experimenter’s Online Video Notebook

Thermite Experimenter’s Online Video Notebook

UCLA chemist Jeffrey Schwartz, whose traditional thermite demonstrations I very much enjoyed at BAMF last week, has compiled what, he quite plausibly claims, is the world’s largest online gallery of thermite reaction videos at his fascinating site Amazing Rust.com. By my count, Jeffrey has there documented, with pictures or video or both, more than 40 different aluminothermic thermite events, smelting eleven different metal oxides including vanadium, cobalt, and titanium.

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Scott’s Pentagonal Dragon Tiling on a Dodecahedron

Scott’s Pentagonal Dragon Tiling on a Dodecahedron

Each face of “DodecaHedron of Dragons II” by California artist Scott Van Note is identically patterned, hand-carved on a pentagonal tiling designed by Scott himself. I had the pleasure of meeting Scott at BAMF 2011, where he was helping out at the Explorable Microscopy booth. We started talking, and he handed me this amazing object. I caught up with him, after the Faire, and got him to answer a few questions about it.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan