kinetic Art

Polage Miniatures

Austine has an on-line gallery of her amazing work.
From Austine Studios: BUY NOW: Polarized Light Art 

click here for more physics fun with polarization. 

Here is a very nice discussion about polarization that pertains to Polage: Experiments With Polarized Light by Donald E. Simanek 

Polage Miniatures: art with polarized light using polarizing sheets and birefringent cellophane to create changing forms and colors. Rotation of the polarizing filter allows the artist to produce colorful metamorphosis. These affordable sun catchers were created by Austine Wood Comarow (the main developer of this art form), and look amazing through polarized sunglasses as well. Light as a transverse wave has an orientation, denoted as polarization, and a polarizing filter can be used to block certain orientations. The colors in polage come from how the molecular structure of plastics can rotate the polarization of any light that passes through- but only light corresponding to yellows and greens gets rotated in plastic, reds and blues not so much. Polage uses different layers of plastic to rotate the light, and then polarizing filters are added to allow only certain frequencies (colors) of light through.

Tornado Spheres

Get a set here: 
From eBay: BUY NOW Tornado Spheres

Get a concave mirror like the one in the video for less than $3 here: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW Concave Mirror  

And get a set of inexpensive colored lights here: 
From eBay: BUY NOW Color LED lights 

Tornado Spheres: two ball bearings welded together can be made to spin up to 2000+ rpm by the Magnus Effect using a stream of air. Shining three colored LEDs on the spinning pair produces an illusion of floating rings along with a second illusion that these rings are rotating and changing direction due to aliasing with the frame rate of the video camera (like the famous wagon-wheel effect).


Kaleidoscope Symmetry Physics

Many designs to choose from- all with precision aligned high quality front surface mirrors: 
From Etsy store Colorado Scopes : BUY NOW Precision Teleidoscopes 

Fine art kaleidoscopes avaibable here:
From Etsy: BUY NOW: Fine Art Kaleidoscopes

Get a Gyrobi here: 
From Amazon: BUY NOW 
Gyrobi Kinetic Toy 

Kaleidoscope Symmetry Physics: Two adjacent mirrors form the repeating image of a kaleidoscope, but the shape of the image is determined by the angle between the mirrors. This principle is demonstrated with three different symmetrical patterns using this beautiful set of precision teleidoscopes- angles of 36° (blue tube), 30° (green tube), and 22.5° (red tube), creating mandala stars with 5, 6, and 8 points. The angle for any symmetric star pattern of n points is just 180°/n. A teleidoscope is a kaleidoscope but with a lens on the end, such that the kaleidoscopic image is formed by whatever is put in front of it. Here the complex motion of a Gyrobi toy is used as the observation object. 

Wham-O Magic Window

Vintage Wham-O Magic Windows are almost always available on eBay : 
From eBay: BUY NOW 
Vintage Magic Window 

Modern versions include water for a diffrent kinetic experience:
From Amazon: BUY NOW
Kinetic Sandscape

Wham-O Magic Window: a popular 1970s toy with immiscible sand like substances interacting under gravity to create images that evoke seascapes and mountains. Unlike most shifting sand devices available today, the Magic Window did not contain any liquid- all the interesting behavior results from the physics of granular materials, specifically interactions due to different sizes and shapes (jagged like salt or round like glass beads) of the grains comprising the different colored “sands”. Shown here is a vintage retail store display stand with the rare “Crystal Fantasy” version of this kinetic art toy. 

Vortex Dome

Get one from David Fowler's online shop: 
From PhysicsHack: BUY NOW: Vortex Dome Kalliroscope 
Made with extraordinary craftsmanship and high quality materials, and sold at a very reasonable price! 

Vortex Dome Kalliroscope: kinetic art with rheoscopic fluid in a rotating base. Visualizing the invisible- the Vortex Dome is the creation of engineer/inventor and @physicsfun featured artist David Fowler aka @physicshack who creates this modern rotating kalliroscope that generates complex and beautiful structures similar to those seen in the cloud bands of the gas giants of our solar system like Jupiter. The capsule is constructed of high quality glass on a heavy stainless steel base which glides on bearings for long spin times.