5-in-5.com

Newtonian Light

I wanted to see what photographed bouncy balls would look like if they were made of light.

So, I had to make my own.

Step 1: make a mold of a ball shape. I chose racquet balls.
This was the mold container:
The Mold Housing

These are the balls: (with little legs to support them, so they don’t touch the bottom of the container:
The Balls I'm going to cast

Balls in mold:
The balls their home, ready to be cast

The first half of the molding process: (they look like a fruit I don’t want to eat)
weird fruit

The Second half: (it looks like they are snorkeling! )
snorkeling

Then the mold dried.
I broke the mold casing:
mold container destruction

And here was the result:
Raquet balls out!Empty mold

Step 2: the light
I made super bright LED throwies that I would embed in the silicone balls.
For those unfamiliar with a throwie, it’s just an LED taped to a battery.
the batteries for the white led
the leds

Then I put them in the mold, with convenient wires to keep them in the center of the balls:
the mold, with leds
the leds in the mold

Step 3: making the balls

I poured the silicone into the mold, and waited several hours:

Then the silicone got stretchy:
Stretchy

And I popped them out, and they were light balls!
_0010776 (photo credit: Ameya Mhatre)

Step 4:
Photos!
Ball Light
Ball Light
Ball Light
Ball Light
Ball Light

Finally Foosball, with Rob Moon!
_0010828
_0010823

July 30th, 2008

3 Comments

  • 1. Corey Menscher  |  July 30th, 2008 at 11:39 am

    I love the foosball! Glofoos!

  • 2. Daily DIY Network - Scien&hellip  |  July 31st, 2008 at 11:02 am

    […] 2 of 5 in 5 brought to life a periodic tote, tickets to a sunset, a year in pictures, balls of light. In an impromptu celebration of old-time computing we got earrings compatible with your PC, […]

  • 3. Jacob Johnson  |  May 11th, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    Led lights are great because they are long lasting and consumes less electricity.“*

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