Edison’s Cradle? A Kinetic Toy Reinvented with Light

As part of his senior thesis exhibition at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, art student Yasutoki Kariya re-imagined the ubiquitous desktop gadget, Newton’s Cradle, employing a beautiful series of light bulbs. Named Asobi (which reads roughly as “playing“) the 11-bulb installation produces a visual interpretation of the well-known toy called after Sir Isaac Newton showing his third law of motion regarding momentum: that for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Although, rather than real energy created by the kinetic force of steel balls, Kariya made an approach for making use of programmed light and two surreptitiously placed pistons to set up this simply visual experience that’s certainly a lot more hypnotic than the unique concept. .

As an added super bonus, the group over at the Experiments in Motion blog produced the animation above which very easily contends for just one of the most lovely animated gifs I have ever seen, now racking up over 167,000 shares on Tumblr this weekend. Asobi was selected for the 2012 Mitsubishi Junior Designer Award.