Re: counting balls

[herbgottlieb@juno.com]

> > > [question asked from the list:]
> > > 1. What is the "counting ball demo"?
> >
> > The counting balls are those lines of five ball bearings suspended 
> from  two rails. Pull n balls off one side (n<5) and realease them, n 
> balls are ejected from the other side after the first n balls collide.

> I think this is also called the "Newtonian Demonstrator" or the 
> "swinging balls" demonstration.

> Steven Ratliff

The boys in my physics classes always referred to this apparatus as 
"Newton's Balls".  This name always got a rise out of the more 
modest girls in the class.

Herb Gottlieb from New York City
(Where the boys in ou physics classes usually outnumber the girls)