If the darts are turned so the large ends are located away from the center
the tape looks like it is curving away from the vertical axis. This could
represent a repulsive force that increases with distance. The two ways of
pointing the darts may serve as a model for what is happening in our
universe. In distances that an astronomer would consider short there is the
attractive gravitational effect that weakens with distance. For distances
that even an astronomer would consider large there is a repulsive effect
that increase with distance (due to "dark energy"?) and did not have a
noticeable effect until well after the "big bang/inflation" origin.