As he shows in his video, as soon as you stretch the rubber band on a slingshot, the band heats up, which gives the slingshot more firing power. Right away the band cools and as the heat leaves, the power declines too. The problem is if you want to have your slingshot loaded and ready to fire you end up losing power. The answer to the problem of losing that power is to apply heat.

Sprave took a heating element and encapsulated it and the rubber bands in an enclosure that traps the heat and keeps the bands nice and warm for firing. This way when he stretches the bands, he can heat them up for maximum power. The heater is powered by a rechargeable battery and appears to heat quickly. He’s also included an interior/exterior thermometer for optimizing the temperature.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if Joerg heated up the rubber bands on some of his more destructive creations like the circular saw slingshot or the slingshot cannon.

The Pyro Board was constructed for Fysickshow Aarhus in Denmark, and can create patterns from sound using flammable gas, pushed through a grid of pinhole jets. The rig sits on top of a loudspeaker inside of a flameproof metal box. When the sounds or music are played, they create low and high pressure zones between the metal box and the grid. These result in cool patterns of flame which move along to the beat of the music. Here, check it out for yourself:

It’s sort of like one of those sound-synchronized light shows, but using flames instead of LEDs or bulbs. While the patterns are definitely not as predictable as a Rubens’ tube, I think the effect is still pretty cool. Now I want a nightclub to install one of these and hand out marshmallows to roast on top of it.

[via Buzzfeed]

However, I am going to talk about that top he keeps on spinning. I’ve spun my share of tops back in the day but I can never manage to keep it going for more than a minute. Maybe I was just bad at it or maybe all I needed was the Magnetic Powered Spinning Top.

So what makes it spin? It’s not by the initial mechanical energy that you impart onto the top by giving it the first spin. Rather, it makes use of the concept of magnetism. The top actually comes with a radially oriented magnetic field while there’s a conductive coil hidden inside the base that comes with it. When the spinning top passes by the center part of the base, its magnetic field causes a current to be induced in the coil, opening up the battery switch, and passing through a jolt of power from the electromagnet to keep the top spinning.

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Really, this is probably how Cobb did it. If you want to work that same magic that he did with the top, then you can get the Magnetic Powered Spinning Top from ThinkGeek for the dreamy low price of $9.99 (USD).

[via Coolest Gadgets]

In this brief laboratory demo, they put their lab mascot – a little guy known as “Zenek” on a superconductor track, and let the Meissner effect carry him along on a bed of magnetic energy, through wisps of liquid nitrogen fog. By carefully balancing Zenek, he whirrs around the track multiple times with only a small push. The short video was shot by Jakub Przybylski, and set to the tune of Regina Spektor’s Us, which makes it all that much more whimsical.

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Last time I remember seeing such an adorable laboratory mascot set to music was Keepon and his little dance to Spoon.

[via The Awesomer]

In the video clip below, it looks like the guy pours liquid into the bottom of his machine, and moments later, the fluid is climbing to the top of the machine, pouring back onto a paddlewheel at the bottom, then flowing back uphill, the cycle repeating in perpetuity.

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So is this a true perpetual motion machine? Have the laws of physics finally been defied? I think not. Watch again carefully, and you can see from the shadows the whole rig is some sort of Escher-like illusion, where the bottom isn’t really the bottom and the top isn’t really the top, and a bit of camera-trickery fools our puny brains. My head hurts just thinking about how it works, but from what I can tell, it’s just gravity doing all the work.

[via BuzzFeed and Gawker TV]

You see, unlike humans, cats can’t suck liquid. Dogs have the same dilemma, but they have a simpler and less elegant solution – they just scoop up the liquid, using the tip of their tongues as ladles.

The cat way of drinking is more awesome because a) this involves balancing gravity and inertia, which means cats know their physics, and b) it prevents their chins from getting wet. And no one likes wet chins. Except dogs. And toddlers. An article detailing the research is included in the November 2010 issue of Science.

photo by Dave Dugdale

[via Yahoo! News and Wired]

As it builds up speed in the video below, the little robot eventually builds up enough speed to spin all the way around the horizontal bar, and even attempts to release its grippy hands mid-spin (with questionable success). Still, the very fact that it can perform acrobatic moves that most human beings can’t muster is enough for me.

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….and dis… mount!

[via PlasticPals]

In Justin Smith’s take on the classic, it’s all about doing the actual traveling–that is, moving your wagon across the terrain of pioneer America. And also? Bouncing cows. In fact, this game is really all about bouncing your cow around in increasingly hilarious ways. At least, they were increasingly hilarious to me.

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Forget dysentery. I’d be way more concerned about what the canvas of that covered wagon is like after all that flipping around. I’m gonna guess it’s not pretty. Good thing they’re going to the promised land. I’m not sure Oregon would be worth it after that.

[Download via Indie Games]

The images above are of the first ever mouse that was made to float by the variable gravity simulator. The mouse apparently panicked, so the next mouse to float was sedated, and it “seemed content with floating.” Uhuh. Anyway I don’t know if the pics were shot from above or from below; either way the view’s kind of a letdown because you can’t really see that the little fella is floating. But what’s important is…Variable Gravity Simulator! Man what an awesome combination of words. The point of the device – and the mice – is to study the long term effects of gravity on humans. But I hope that we can build larger and stronger VGSes so us common people can try what these lucky mice are enjoying.

[LiveScience via Neatorama]

In this indie physics-based game from Eli Piilonen and Edmund McMillan, you play a test subject caught in a variety of devious puzzles, and your only method of escape is to barf your guts out so you can float your way out of the maze.

As you work your way through the game’s 60 levels, the challenges keep getting tougher and tougher. Luckily, you continue to evolve over time, and get bigger, badder and better regurgitation capabilities as you progress – and if you’re persistent, you might learn why you’ve been turned into a vomiting guinea pig.

So if you’ve got the stomach for it, head on over to Newgrounds and check out Spewer now.

[via The Independent Gaming Source]

This quirky homebrew variant on Pac-Man from IMWILL envisions a world where nothing is bolted down, including the interior walls of the maze. Once the gameplay kicks in, gravity switches off, and Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Clyde, the power pills and dots all get to floating around the darkness of space.

You won’t be able to get through this game by memorizing patterns while playing this version. Heck, you’ll be lucky to survive a 30 seconds without a floating ghost smashing right into you. Your only hope is to gobble up a power pill, which turns on gravity for a few seconds, sucking every object in the direction of the red gravity arrow – but the ghosts never turn blue for you to chomp on. Good luck with all that.

The whole thing sort of reminds me of that time Homer Simpson let that bag of potato chips loose in the space capsule and had to eat them all.

It’s actually kind of fun once you get the hang of it – and definitely much harder than the original. If you’re ready to head into zero-Gs with Pac-Man, you can grab a download of the game here (Windows PCs only, bummer).

[via Indiegames]

The “I Survived the Large Hadron Collider” shirt celebrates the fact that we’re still alive even after the LHC was turned on. If you’re going “whaaaaaat?” right now then you might want to try this shirt, which explains the fundamental sciences in uber-layman’s terms:

What’s that? It’s way too corny?  So you want something more offensive? Then slay your Physics professors with this insult ala particle physics shirt:

Okay so it’s still corny. But at least you got the joke. All of these shirts – and other designs – are available at Neatorama’s shop. They’re all on sale too, down to $10 from $15. If you don’t want them, maybe your teachers will. *wink wink*

Created by Yoshio Ishii for Japan’s NekoGames, Physics Invader is a Flash based game applies physics, including gravity and mass to the demise of the 8-bit aliens. As your laser cannon pierces each invader, its tiny little pixelated body falls to the ground, and their little carcasses pile up at the bottom of the screen. But why write up wordy descriptions of the game when you can play it for yourself?…

Sir Isaac Newton would be so proud.

[via Indie Games via The Awesomer]

The game’s mechanics are simple: Here’s a Boom Bot. There’s an exit.  Here’s some bombs. Bomb the Boom Bot until he gets to the exit. Simple fun physics right? Isn’t that better than “A body will remain at rest or in uniform linear motion (a=0) unless acted upon by an external net force F”? And what the hell’s an F force?  G-Force (“Bird Go!”) I know, but not F-Force.

As you can see there are other exploding things in the game besides bombs. Boom bot II adds fuses, boulders and planks to the mix for more explosive physics fun. There’s also a level editor so you can still have fun even if you’ve finished the default stages.

To make things easier for budding bombers, players can choose whether or not to have an  unlimited supply of regular bombs. To make it easier on your conscience, the expression on boom bot’s face when you bomb him is ambiguous. He’s smiling when he gets to the exit though, so there you go. Look for Boom Bot II in flash-based game sites like Bored.

Serious question: Have you ever seen a real bomb that looks like the cartoon bomb? You know, shiny black sphere with a fuse? Can I have one?

[via random good stuff]

I actually tried to justify to myself this gadget’s dimension-shattering existence, thinking that it might be useful for very young kids or people with special needs, such as amputees. But look at what’s inside the box: battery box, plastic rings, nuts, wire, plastic suction cups, sticky pads, screws, plastic discs with pulley, connecting sleeves, terminal block, screw driver, base plate with guide, motors and detailed instructions. Batteries not included. Tell me, Middlesex University, which would be easier: to ask someone to assemble the motherflipping contraption, or to ask someone to launch a paper plane? Using their built-in hands?

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I don’t care if the paper planes it launches move at the speed of light. This is like someone eating your food for you. Someone that you have to purchase for $16 and build. Notice also that the box says “kits created by specialists who teach teachers”, and not “kits created by specialists who create kits”. The second one would have been so much more reassuring.

Kids: remember what happened in WALL*E? Use your limbs. For the sake of humanity.

[via computersight]

Einstein’s formula for the equivalence of mass and energy states that anything that has mass possesses a certain amount of energy whether or not it’s at rest. Meanwhile, as mentioned in the article, particle physics says that protons and neutrons – from which atoms are made of – are made up of quarks, which are bound together by gluons. What is strange is that gluons have zero mass, while quarks account for just 5% of an atom’s mass, which leaves 95%, or practically all of it, unaccounted for. The physicists discovered that the rest of the mass is actually the energy arising out of the “movement and interaction of quarks and gluons.” In other words, mass is equivalent to energy. Which is what Einstein said. In 1905. Tsk. Ye of little faith.

So what did we learn today? That Einstein’s brain is larger than France, Germany and Hungary plus a bunch of Michael Phelps/LeBron James class of supercomputers put together. His hair was probably made up of brain cells for all we know. Yup. One smart dude.

***Crickets***

In other news, Brock Lesnar won me $8 by beating Randy Couture.

[via The Age via Slashdot]

The game is designed to be a co-op platformer, where individuals can design their own physics-driven platform levels, then run through them with friends. The game was shown running in real-time on what appeared to be PS3 hardware, and the graphics look truly wonderful in action. The game features some amazingly deep physics (think Half Life 2) and a robust, but easy to use level editor. This is just the kind of quirky, unique game that we’ve been hoping that Sony would reveal for their much-maligned console.

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Color me impressed.

The first video shows off the enhanced AI engine (called “Euphoria”) which provides each enemy with a “central nervous system,” which makes them intelligent and emotional reactions to stimuli in their environment:

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[via TechEBlog]

The concept works by using a tiny mirror, about 1/2-millimeter across, suspended by carbon fibers. The fibers then amplify vibrations of a piezoelectric motor, which in turn moves the mirror. Then a laser is focused on the mirror, and the mirror moves the laser beam very rapidly back and forth. Currently, the prototype only can move the beam horizontally, but future enhancements will allow for vertical movements as well. Then, add red, green and blue lasers and you have a teensy projector. This approach would “paint” an image in a similar way to a CRT.

DLP, one of today’s leading projection technologies, uses similar a concept. Texas Instruments’ DLP chips move an array of millions of tiny mirrors to create a picture. Now this research breakthrough could mean that the concept could get a whole lot smaller. The Cornell invention is said to be able scan over a very wide range and at a high scanning speed using a very small mirror.

According to the researchers, they have achieved mirror vibration frequencies of 35,000 cycles per second. Theoretically, this would be sufficient to produce a 720p image at 60fps, although there is some concern about flicker at this early stage.

A prototype projector should be ready within a year, with commercial products, to be developed by the researchers’ startup business, Mesmeriz, likely within three to five years.

[via Technology Review via Digg]