Edison's Cradle

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By Matt Richardson
Posted 2012/08/06 @ 4:30 am
Category Art & Design

I love art student Yasutoki Kariya’s Asobi, an entry in Mitsubishi Chemical’s Junior Designer Awards. Johnny at Spoon & Tamago aptly calls it “Edison’s Cradle,” a nod to Newton’s Cradle, “the iconic desktop toy that demonstrates Newton’s third law of motion.” Be sure to watch the video to get the full effect with the sound it makes. [via Neatorama]

BY Matt Richardson

Matt Richardson is a Brooklyn-based creative technologist, contributing editor for MAKE magazine, and co-author of Getting Started with Raspberry Pi. He's also the owner of Awesome Button Studios, a technology consultancy. Highlights from his work include the Descriptive Camera (a camera which outputs a text description instead of a photo) and The Enough Already (a DIY celebrity-silencing device). Matt's work has been featured at The Nevada Museum of Art, The Rome International Photography Festival, Milan Design Week and has garnered attention from The New York Times, Wired, and New York Magazine.

mattrichardson.com

In the Maker Shed

13 Responses to Edison’s Cradle

trkemp on August 6th, 2012 at 5:07 am said:

Interesting idea. It would be a lot cooler if there were actually some sort of mechanical linkage between the bulbs and sensors were being used to drive the lighting of the bulbs, rather than just a timer loop with solenoids on either end.

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- Merglyn on August 6th, 2012 at 8:58 am said:
  
  I agree completely.
  Idea=excellent
  Execution=Subpar
  I might just have to try and make my own
  
  Reply ↓
  
  trkemp on August 6th, 2012 at 2:48 pm said:
  
  I think it could be a fun project too. I was thinking that using cast acrylic balls with an embedded LED and accelerometer (MMA8452Q maybe?) might be the way to go. Or maybe hanging on a stiff rod from a potentiometer.
  
  Large glass bulbs like in the original would be a quick way to at least break a filament if not a glass bulb.
  
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  notstarman on August 6th, 2012 at 5:15 pm said:
  
  I think that a pezo driving the light would be cool. The ball gets hit deforming the pezo element. That creates the signal and through an amp could drive the lights. Just a thought thou.
  
  Reply ↓
- Warren on August 19th, 2012 at 11:03 am said:
  
  As a designer i’m quite torn here. I mean one can’t just copy the artist or designer’s work. But then technically one only really _can’t_ if they’ve patented it. It still feels unethical.
  How about communicating with the originator? Asking permission, or more importantly giving them the opportunity to be in on this spin-off of THEIR input?
  
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  trkemp on August 20th, 2012 at 4:33 am said:
  
  Unless you are planning to copy their work exactly I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s not as if their work isn’t derivative. Plus, hopefully, you will improve on it, which is OK even if theirs had been patented.
  
  Reply ↓
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CFL manufacturer's lobbyist on August 6th, 2012 at 9:31 pm said:

Those bulbs should be illegal because I said so!

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