"Newton Cradle"

[Jan Ridders]

Hi all,
I made a "Newton Cradle" for my 13 year old grandson Gijs.
Gijs can put it on his desk and play with it and/or demontrate the "conservation of mechanical impuls" according to the Newton Laws during one of his physic lessons at school. Not an unique toy but Gijs can at least tell that his grandpa made it for him.
I even made a 4-page CAD plan for it in case somebody want to make this little toy himself.
See the according page on my web site:
http://ridders.nu/Webpaginas/pagina_cradle_gijs/cradle_frameset.htm
and/or the YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq0jzXV84hg&list=UUOWqwLEIfORZB09qQirdkag
Friendly greetings from Holland,
Jan Ridders

 

[chuckorlando]

Nice. I remember playing with one of them

 

[LEEQ]

That is a very nice looking project.

 

[Marco Bernardini]

Excellent execution, Jan!
May I suggest you another simple but effective "machine" which could be pretty interesting for your grandson?
It is shown in the documentary "Similarities in Wave Behavior" by Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1959 (so nothing highly sophisticated!), but the results are impressive:

[video=youtube;DovunOxlY1k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DovunOxlY1k[/video]

At the very bottom of my TODO list there is one of these machines with LEDs at the ends of the bars, powered by sun&wind, to be used as garden mobile sculpture…

 

[Vavet]

 

[Ray C]

Classic physics. All rudimentary and fun things to learn. Many folks look at this and think it's just grown folks playing with odd toys but in reality, these are the fundamental principals of everything around us. The concepts apply to things both microscopic and macroscopic. The Newton Cradle for example is a demonstration of "Conservation of Momentum" (M[SUB]1[/SUB]V[SUB]1[/SUB] = M[SUB]2[/SUB]V[SUB]2[/SUB]) and the theories apply to how/why planets revolve and how/why electrons orbit a nucleus. The math involved is usually quite easy with just basic calculus at the core of it.

There are just a few handfuls of such fundamental principals usually taught in the first few semesters of a physics curriculum -and once you understand them, your eyes see the world in different ways. It's also interesting to note that most of these discoveries and the math needed to truly understand and prove them, evolved 300-400 years ago. This represents an amazing period in human intellectual development -and it humbles me to think those folks were so advanced for their time. I wonder what the next frontier of understanding will cover...

Ray

 

[DMS]

Beautiful work as always Jan

 

[echesak]

Beautiful job!

Eric

 

[mzayd3]

Excellent execution, Jan!
May I suggest you another simple but effective "machine" which could be pretty interesting for your grandson?
It is shown in the documentary "Similarities in Wave Behavior" by Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1959 (so nothing highly sophisticated!), but the results are impressive:

[video=youtube;DovunOxlY1k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DovunOxlY1k[/video]

At the very bottom of my TODO list there is one of these machines with LEDs at the ends of the bars, powered by sun&wind, to be used as garden mobile sculpture…

now I can't stop watching the other shows from ATT archives! Thanks Marco! I find these entertaining.