Re: counting balls

["Steven T. Ratliff" <str@nwc.edu>]

> Date:          Fri, 12 Sep 1997 23:13:51 -0700
> Reply-to:      phys-l@mailer.uwf.edu
> From:          Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>
> To:            phys-l@atlantis.cc.uwf.edu
> Subject:       counting balls

On Friday, Sept. 12 Leigh Palmer wrote:

> > > I remember vividly when I first saw the "counting balls" demo. It was
> > > when I was a little boy and my father took me with him to his bowling
> > > league game. Bowling balls used to come up in a long rack with detents
> > > and they exhibit this phenomenon better than those novelty toys.
> > [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.

Regards,
Steven Ratliff




Steven T. Ratliff
Associate Professor of Physics
Northwestern College
3003 Snelling Av. N.
Saint Paul, MN  55113-1598

Internet:  stratliff@nwc.edu (or str@nwc.edu)