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The Kid Should See This

The Strange Gravity

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What is happening in this video? How are these colorful marbles rolling up this cardboard slope? Are unseen laws of physics at play here? Is there something misleading going on? Are the marbles defying gravity?

The YouTube channel Things made of cardboard writes: “I used a little trick to show how easy it is to make a false impression.”

Pause after the third yellow marble—around the 50-second mark—to make your guesses before the answer is revealed.

how does this marble travel to the shaft?

TEACHING RESOURCES:
• What is media literacy, and why is it important? Discussion questions and tips from Common Sense Education.

File under illusions, tricks, and perception. Related media literacy videos on TKSST include:
• How to spot a misleading graph
• Why do people fall for misinformation?
• 4 Tips for Making Kids Ad Savvy
• Debunking fake ‘kitchen hacks’ that have billions of views

Also: It’s different from what you expected (Unexpected Outcomes) from Design Ah!

Plus, enjoy a few real marble run videos:
Making a giant cardboard marble run from scratch
• Andrew Gatt’s Ultimate Paper Roller Coaster
• Paul Grundbacher’s wooden marble machines
• AlgoLoop, a desktop marble machine toy by Yosuke Ikeda
• How to make a steel track marble run, a step-by-step guide

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

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