DIY Gadgets

[Andy Dingley]

- Start with longer loops than you expect to need.

- Use a pair of those very pointed scissors with the bow handles from the Chinese supermarket (cheap and excellent)

- Mark a light pencil guideline before cutting

- Don't use newspaper - it's just not strong enough. Lining wallpaper isn't much better. Brown paper carrier bags are excellent.

Then just make lots of loops and experiment. Try different numbers of twists, and try cutting some loops into halves and some into thirds.

It's an easy afternoon's child amusing that scales to any number of children, doesn't cost much, and can be produced out of thin air with little notice.

Another good quick amusement for kids is making "ooblick" (mix cornflour and water in the palm of your hand, then learn to juggle with it)

[Mary Fisher]

A fine introduction to Escher.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

We're not short of scissors in this house - just remembering where they are ...

Same with pencils!

No problem,. Don't have them in the house.

Nor that

Lots of those :-)

Right. I shall. Well, after I've been to a grandsprog's flat warming bash and sprog's central-heating-switching-on bash - another, real, house warming.

Then I have to remember ...

Umm. Do you really mean cornflour?

Mary

[Andy Hall]

... or (k)not

[Andy Dingley]

Yes ! Try it.

But I'd start over the kitchen sink.

[Mary Fisher]

I've played with cornflour for many years but have never got it into a juggling state ... perhaps that's your point :-)

Mary

[Andy Dingley]

It has negative thixotropic behaviour. So long as you keep stirring or disturbing it, it's a jelly-like solid. Leave it alone and it returns to a liquid. The proportions are a little sensitive, but just try experimenting.

[Andrew Gabriel]

and then hit it and it's a solid.

[Thomas Prufer]

Corn starch (or any other starch, AFAIK) and water will give a non-Newtonian fluid. Move it rapidly, and it's a solid. Slowly, and it's a liquid; grab an solid handful and feel it turn liquid...

Lots of starch, little water -- "slush" describes it well.

Thomas Prufer

[Mary Fisher]

Quite.

I still doubt that in any state you'd be able to juggle with it - or is that the joke?

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Yes. I first learned about this sixty odd years ago, making the initial paste for Birds custard. I was fascinated.

Mary

[Andy Dingley]

I can't juggle with a sandbag (singular). But people who can juggle, can manage to juggle this stuff.

[Mary Fisher]

Next time I see my juggling pal I'll ask him. He found it hard to learn how to do Zen juggling (using only one ball) but he's game for anything.

Mary

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[raden]

In message , Phil Addison writes

That's not what half the spam cut it in thirds and you get two interlocking ones (whether they're still mobius strips, I really can't remember)

[raden]

A bit like Schuhmacker (?), it makes for a one sided race

[raden]

In message , Mary Fisher writes

Have the Escher Lego models already been posted here before ?

for example

[raden]

In message , Mary Fisher writes

Aha - does a cornflour juggling ball make a mess if you drop it on the kitchen floor if there's nobody there to see it ?

[Andy Hall]

Definitely not, for the same reason that buttered toast lands buttered side down if you drop it on the floor....

[Dave Liquorice]

Wow, thats almost enough to make me nick the kids lego...

[Mary Fisher]

And they even tell you how it's done, which is what I was wondering.

Thanks, Geoff.

Mary