LegoSnapper

thekidshouldseethis:

Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner works with the intersection of art and science. He takes perfectly-timed photos of brightly-colored paint being spun at high speeds. From the artist: 

“Black Hole” is a series of images, which shows paint modeled by the centripetal force. The setup is very simple: Various shades of acrylic paint are dripped onto a metallic rod, which is connected to a drill. When switched on, the paint starts to move away from the rod, creating these amazing looking structures.

The motion of the paint happens in a blink of an eye, the images you see are taken only millisecond after the drill was turned on. To capture the moment, where the paint forms that distinctive shape, I connected a sensor to the drill, which sends an impulse to the flashes. These specialized units are capable of creating flashes as short as a 1/40000 of a second, freezing the motion of the paint.

We’d love to watch high speed, slow-mo video of this project. See more of Fabian’s images here, and then check out his painting in magnetic ferrofluid project.

via Colossal.

Paint spray pictures

thekidshouldseethis:

This mind-bending and water bending viral video is another experiment from Brusspup (featured previously on this site). Here’s the zig zag DIY: 

Run the rubber hose down past the speaker so that the hose touches the speaker. Leave about 1 or 2 inches of the hose hanging past the bottom of the speaker. Secure the hose to the speaker with tape or whatever works best for you. The goal is to make sure the hose is touching the actual speaker so that when the speaker produces sound (vibrates) it will vibrate the hose.

Set up your camera and switch it to 24 fps. The higher the shutter speed the better the results. But also keep in the mind that the higher your shutter speed, the more light you need. Run an audio cable from your computer to the speaker. Set your tone generating software to 24hz and hit play. Turn on the water. Now look through the camera and watch the magic begin. If you want the water to look like it’s moving backward set the frequency to 23hz. If you want to look like it’s moving forward in slow motion set it to 25hz.

And if you want to see it with your eyes and no camera, a strobe light, set to 24hz in a light-controlled environment should do the trick. 

We love illusions and experiments. Another great video on tricking the eye at the right frame rate: Pixar’s Zoetrope and how animation works.

via Colossal.

Water play

thekidshouldseethis:

Youtube user Hknssn built a paper airplane-making machine using legos. As a last step, it launches the airplanes — a compressor shoots them about 2-3 meters off-camera — but you might have to watch the launch more than once. It happens fast!

via Dvice.

Lego airplane maker

thekidshouldseethis:

NPR’s Human-Powered Helicopters: Straight Up Difficult!

How difficult? The Sikorsky Prize from the American Helicopter Society has promised $250,000 to anyone that build’s a human-powered helicopter that can “hover for a minute, reach a height of 3 meters (about 10 feet), and stay in a 10-meter box.”

No one has claimed this prize in 30 years. And not for a lack of trying. 

But students at the University of Maryland, Team Gamera HPH, are now closer than most to reaching this goal. Watch the video above and read more about them on NPR.

via Kottke.

Not a problem. Just a challenge.

thekidshouldseethis:

Britain’s longest-serving blacksmith is still forging iron in his workshop - at the age of 84. Hardy Fred Harriss, 84, first picked up a hammer and tong aged ten in 1938 and is still working every day 74 years later. 

via Vimeo.

Never stop. http://flpbd.it/LPB5k

thekidshouldseethis:

What do we have in common with wildlife? What do we share with nature and the landscapes of our Earth? From the World Wildlife Fund: We Are All Connected.

via Most Watched Today.

thekidshouldseethis:

Four skydivers do a choreographed dance in the Skydive Arena wind tunnel in Prague, Czech Republic. 

The kid keeps asking to watch this classic viral video. I’ve explained about how the wind tunnel allows them to “fly” but i’m not sure it’s all so clear. And frankly, I don’t completely understand how they do it either. But I know we’d both love to try. Here’s another video with a lesson in action!

http://flpbd.it/XHlUh
Get flipped.

thekidshouldseethis:

How cool would it be if your hot wheels cars were life-sized and could drive on massive looped tracks?! At the 2012 X Games in Los Angeles on Saturday June 30th, Team Hot Wheels professional drivers Tanner Foust and Greg Tracy made hot wheels come to life by driving two specially-designed, 3000lb cars through a six-story (66-foot tall) double vertical loop. At the needed 48-52mph, they each experienced up to 7gs of acceleration. Then they both make jumps!  

Not only did their team use an understanding of physics and engineering to do the stunt successfully and safely, but they set a Guinness World Record. Do not miss Tanner’s interview about jump testing and absolutely watch the behind-the-scenes ESPN Sports Science video that explains exactly how they did it!

h/t Devour. 

From the archives: a 2,000 foot long hot wheels track!

Hot wheels lifesize. http://flpbd.it/lZB9l

thekidshouldseethis:

Melvin the Traveling Mini Machine is two suitcases filled with a wonderfully detailed Rube Goldberg Machine, all to put a stamp on a postcard. 

Besides doing what Rube Goldbergs do best – performing a simple task as inefficiently as possible, often in the form of a chain reaction – Melvin has an online identity as well, which he uses to connect to and interact with his audience. Melvin the Mini Machine uses a smartphone and bespoke code and software to determine its location, write messages and recognize the people around him…

Once a picture is uploaded after it’s been processed, the data and the picture are published to Facebook and Twitter… Melvin’s travels page runs the Google Maps API with a custom layout… In short, this new Melvin is a Rube Goldberg machine specifically built to travel the world… Information on how the new Melvin works, its different parts and how to contact us can be found here.

My guess is that after it’s traveled for a while, we’ll have a whole map of photos taken by the machine that show happy audiences watching Melvin as intensely as this.

via This Is Colossal.

Chain Reaction http://flpbd.it/MfRgT

thekidshouldseethis:

In April 2012 Copenhagen Phil (Sjællands Symfoniorkester) surprised the passengers in the Copenhagen Metro by playing Griegs Peer Gynt. The flash mob was created in collaboration with Radio Klassisk. All music was performed and recorded in the metro.

via The Awesomer.

Must listen. http://flpbd.it/buavh

thekidshouldseethis:

The Hidden Beauty of Pollination. You’re seen this video before. It was a part of Louie Schwartzberg’s TED Talk in 2011, but frankly, it’s so amazing that it’s worth watching and posting again on its own! 

This video was shown at the TED conference in 2011, with scenes from “Wings of Life,” a film about the threat to essential pollinators that produce over a third of the food we eat. The seductive love dance between flowers and pollinators sustains the fabric of life and is the mystical keystone event where the animal and plant worlds intersect that make the world go round.

via Boing Boing.

Amazing.

http://flpbd.it/VNUvL

thekidshouldseethis:

From Science Friday, behold A Spacesuit Ballet: 

Of the suit he wore on the moon, Neil Armstrong wrote, “it was tough, reliable, and almost cuddly.” But that cuddly suit, made by the company Playtex, had some stiff competition (literally) from rival rigid, metal designs. This video features archival NASA footage of mobility tests for several spacesuit prototypes. Music is from the band One Ring Zero’s album “Planets”.

http://flpbd.it/UhblV
Iteration at its best.

thekidshouldseethis:

Nine year old Caine Monroy made a super-detailed cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto part store. His first customer happened to be filmmaker Nirvan Mullick, who was inspired by Caine’s inventiveness and decided to get Caine a flashmob of customers one Sunday. This is a film about that day.

We loved this video immediately. And when the video ends, it’s always good when my kid says, “I want to see it again.” If you’re inspired by Caine and his cardboard arcade, too, you can follow @cainesarcade on Twitter and visit CainesArcade.com to donate to his college fund (which is happily climbing)!!

via @Veronica.

Other kids makin’ it happen: Audri and his Rube Goldberg Machine, and Milah and Korben sing Depeche Mode with their dad.

Flat out awesome. http://flpbd.it/lFWzT