Topic: shapes
Three Gears are Possible
If you've ever seen an image of three gears all interlocking or an odd number of interconnecting gears, like those gears on some British two pound (£2) coins, you've seen a gear configuration that does not work. Howev...
A 3D printed mechanical laser show machine
Engineer, maker, and 3D printing enthusiast Evan Stanford has created a 3D printed, hand-cranked mechanical laser show machine that 'draws' with projected light. The drawn shapes are created with two rotating cams tha...
How to make a Hollow Mask Illusion
How do we perceive faces? With some balloons, newspaper, some paste for paper mâché, and paints, you can create a hollow mask that appears to follow you as you move back and forth around the room. Rachel and her child...
John Coltrane’s Giant Steps animated
When I listen to music I see colors and shapes and when I watch visual art I hear sounds. I wanted to express my sensing of shapes, colors and music in this short animation. I chose this piece because I’ve struggle...
Pearl Fryar’s world-renowned topiary garden of rescued plants
In Bishopville, South Carolina, Pearl Fryar is a local gardening legend. When he first moved to the small town in the 1980s, he was almost unable to build his house because neighbors feared that as an African American...
A woodworker creates ‘Fibonacci Spiral shavings’
With a freshly sharpened chisel, woodworker Paul Sellers creates what he calls 'Fibonacci spiral shavings,' shaved pieces of wood that resemble Fibonacci spirals, "an approximation of the golden spiral created by draw...
A Fold Apart: Origamist Robert Lang’s Incredible Paper Creations
Twenty five years ago, physicist Robert Lang worked at NASA, where he researched lasers. He has also garnered 46 patents on optoelectronics and even wrote a Ph.D. thesis called "Semiconductor Lasers: New Geometries an...
Calculating Pi (π) with Darts
Can you calculate Pi (π) by throwing darts at a square and circle target as randomly as possible? Physics Girl's Dianna Cowern and Veritasium's Derek Muller attempt the challenge, and when "randomly" doesn't happen, t...
A Circle Thief (まるどろぼう)
A subway rider diligently attempts to thwart the circle thief who is taking all of the useful round objects: A Circle Thief (まるどろぼう) by Tokyo-based art and design student Komoto.
Dance of Harmony, an animated synesthetic voyage
One day when I was sixteen, I realized that I could see music. The saxophone I played and the jazz I loved listening to came to life before my eyes, or perhaps behind my eyes, in shape and color — little animated char...
Magic Clay stop motion
Magic Clay, a stop motion short by Alexander Unger, a.k.a. Guldies. How do you make an animated short like this one? Unger writes: Shot with a Canon EOS 600D. 1800 still pictures, 24 FPS and animated in Dragonfram...
Feynman’s Building Blocks of Thermodynamics
Thermodynamics — 'thermo' meaning heat and 'dynamics' referring to work —is the branch of physics that focuses on the relationship between heat and other kinds of energy. This video from The Royal Institution introduc...
ChainFORM, robot modules that can transform
Can one system of tiny robo-modules attached together in a line transform into multiple tools, interfaces, and creative opportunities? This is ChainFORM from a team at MIT Media Lab's Tangible Media Group, a hardware ...
The 3-million-year old Ningwu ice cave never thaws
White stalactites hang down from every surface, and the walls and floors are glazed with thick ice. The Ningwu ice cave, also referred to as Wannian Ice Cave in Ningwu County, China, is a unique phenomenon: The subter...
LEGO Dragon-Butterfly-Jet Magic Angle Sculpture
Created with layers and layers of LEGO pieces, magic angle sculptures appear to be completely abstract forms at first glance, but with the help of a light and rotation, they reveal their complex design. Inspired b...
3D-printed Metamaterial Mechanisms
Researchers at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute in Potsdam, Germany are exploring how 3D cell patterns called metamaterials can take on not-seen-in-nature properties based on their shape, geometry, size, orientation, and ...
The Guillemot egg, an egg that saves its own life
Guillemots are sea birds that reside in crowded colonies on rocky cliff sides. When they breed, they produce one conical egg which incubates for around 30 days on the precarious cliffside... but guillemots don't make ...
FORMS IN NATURE: Understanding Our Universe
In an animation that hearkens back to the work of illustrator Charley Harper, Chromosphere intertwines humanity's scientific achievements with the wonders of the natural world: FORMS IN NATURE: Understanding Our Unive...
