Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Hoberman Switch Pitch toy ball

This is a really cool toy from Hoberman, who also made the spheres made out of linkages that would expand the sphere to many times its size when pulled on.

The Switch Pitch is a ball that will switch colors when thrown. Linkages that make up the ball have surfaces that act as the surface of the ball when it is collapsed. When thrown with a little spin (sudden acceleration works too), the momentum pulls the linkages out and flips them around. One thing I noticed is that faces of the ball (circular nodes flat on the surface) turn into vertices and vice versa (nodes that are pushed into the sphere, but still visible).

Hoberman has multiple similar toys and an interactive animation showing the switch on their website.


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