Inspired by the impossible illustrations of M.C. Escher, particularly the famous Waterfall, inventor and entrepreneur James Dyson created this remarkable fountain that appears to defy the laws of nature.

To the observer, it looks like the water is making its way up each triangular segment, then spilling off into the corners below, and the illusion is hard to shake even once you know how it works.

Essentially, water is being pushed out of the top thanks to pumps below, then flowing back down both off the edges and along the backs of the triangles. Because the eye sees the waterfall at the end, and due to bubbles observed within the tanks, the brain infers the flow of the triangle-top liquid to be in the same direction.

Called the Wrong Garden, Dyson created this masterpiece for the a flower show hosted by the Royal Horticultural Society. Set flush with the ground, one would never guess at a glance that a hidden mechanism is driving the entire trick from below the surface of the landscape.

The post Reverse Physics: Anti-Gravity Fountain Seems to Flow Uphill first appeared on Gajitz.

Any science class in the industrialized world will, at some point, mention the experiment in which a bowling ball and a feather are dropped from the same height simultaneously. Due to air resistance, the feather falls far slower than the ball. But when the experiment is repeated in a vacuum – where the factor of air resistance is removed – the outcome is entirely different.

Although most of us are aware of the feather/ball experiment and its outcome, actually performing the vacuum part of the exercise is difficult to achieve so remains an abstract concept to non-scientists. Physicist Brian Cox visited NASA’s Space Power FacilityCh in Ohio to make the concept more concrete and understandable. The facility houses NASA’s Space Simulation Chamber, the biggest vacuum chamber in the world.

With a volume of around 800,000 cubic feet, the enormous aluminum and concrete chamber contains 30 tons of air when not in use. It takes three hours to pump all but two grams of air out to use the chamber for a vacuum experiment. All of that preparation is completely worth it when you see the feather-and-ball experiment happening in real life. The feathers and bowling ball fall at exactly the same speed and hit the bottom at precisely the same time, an effect that was perfectly predictable for the scientists in the video but still seemed to amaze them. Their glee at seeing the experiment happen right in front of them is precisely why science is so awesome.

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If you know anything about physics, you already know why spinning tops come in conical or pointed spheroid shapes: in order to spin, they have to have a precise center of gravity and moment of inertia. Tops have been used for several thousand years and no one has really played with their shape or function much until now. Disney researchers have used 3D printing and some fancy physics to make just about any shape into a well-spinning top.

By selectively changing the amount of mass contained in different parts of 3D printed figures, the researchers were able to change the objects’ moment of inertia. This partial hollowing of the shapes allows the unusual shapes to easily spin just like a traditional top. Even a very asymmetric shape like the armadillo above can do some impressive moves once its weight has been distributed in all the right places.

Some shapes weren’t able to be optimized for spinning even with selective hollowing; in those cases, the Disney folks added metal to the interior of the shapes to give them the proper balance they needed to spin. The researchers also made yo-yos in unusual shapes using the same method. Like tops, yo-yos typically need to be round and smooth in order to move up and down on their strings. But in the Disney project, even a cuboid yo-yo works normally.

The post Spin Doctors: Disney Creates Impossible Spinning Tops first appeared on Gajitz.

Pendulum waves are one of those physics experiments that can make the natural world seem almost like magic. In a pendulum wave, many pendulums of different lengths start swinging at the same time. As their different lengths cause them to swing at different rates, they start out synchronized and quickly begin to swing in mesmerizing patterns.

This articular pendulum wave was built by artist and Appalachian State University teacher Jeff Goodman outdoors in North Carolina. It uses 16 bowling balls mounted on a wooden frame.

The pendulums’ lengths are precisely calculated so that they will all stop at precisely the same moment. Or at least that’s what they would do in a controlled environment. In this outdoor setup, environmental factors make them stop at slightly different times. Still, the visual display is kind of mind-blowing and begs to be watched over and over.

The post Rhythmic Waves: Mesmerizing Outdoor Pendulum Wave first appeared on Gajitz.

The world is facing a very real, very alarming trend in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) professions: tomorrow’s scientists and engineers just aren’t interested. The appeal of STEM careers has been steadily dropping among young people as they go through middle and high school, but trends indicate that careers in these fields will continue to grow at a faster-than-average pace in the next decade. To keep up with demand and keep the world (and specifically the US in this story) in the global technology game, we have to come up with better ways to get kids interested in math and science.

SciPlay, a research group formed in 2010 by the New York Hall of Science, is developing several apps that will make learning physics and scientific concepts seem like a game. Working with media design firm Local Projects, SciPlay is using kids’ natural love for play to draw their attention to the math and science already happening all around them.

The app works by using video to illustrate the science at work in everyday activities. One kid holding an iPad records other kids swinging, throwing a ball, jumping, climbing, or any number of other playground activities. Then, either via information received form a sensor (like an iPod embedded in a foam ball or worn on a kid’s belt) or tracing an arc of motion, the app can illustrate levels of velocity, force, energy, and acceleration.

Kids at the New York Hall of Science are acting as collaborators on the project. Their feedback is going into the visual design of the app as well as its functions. The lucky kids who are in on the project also get to test out the app by playing just like they normally would, then using the app to see the science behind every moment of physical activity. SciPlay thinks (and we agree) that by approaching physics from a playful standpoint rather than trying to lecture on these difficult concepts, they may just be helping to incubate the next generation of great scientific minds.

(via: FastCo)

The post Making Learning Fun: Physics App Uses Playing to Teach first appeared on Gajitz.