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Photographing Exploding Edibles
Isaac Skibinski writes "Remember gawking at photos of bullets going through apples (and the pretty fruit gibbage)? We've recently built an apparatus to capture similar results, using a BASIC controller stamp, a disposable camera flash, an air compressor, an electronic sprinkler valve and some pipe. Considering the cost of the device, it has allowed us to take suprisingly crisp photos of high-velocity objects."
How many times he heard his mom screaming "STOP PLAYING WITH THE FOOD!"
If you want any of these pictures in a larger format, take a look here You really are just begging and pleading for a ./ing aren't you?
there are similar highspeed captures and a lot more fantastic photography and articles in this book from the swedish Karolinska Institute (http://www.imagesinscience.com) sadly only available from http://kup.ki.se/publications/images_sciences_en.h tml
A button is hit, telling the micro-controller to open the valve, thus releasing the pressure and sending the waiting bolt hurdling forth at around 150 m/sec
His ping times suck!
Sent from your iPad.
There is a lot of information on building a sound-triggered system at http://www.hiviz.com/, along with some photos.
There's got to be a research project in here somewhere... "Citrus Fruits and Their Implosion Properties". Maybe Apple would sponsor it.
SCO, Microsoft, P2P, what's your hot button?
don't sit too close to the end of the barrel, like Isaac did.
That's not so bad. The real Isaac stuck a knife in his eye just to see what would happen.
--
In London? Need a Physics Tutor?
American Weblog in London
using a BASIC controller stamp, a disposable camera flash, an air compressor, an electronic sprinkler valve and some pipe
MacGyver got a new hobby....but where's the duct tape???
They are using a nail gun in what seems to be a garage or a basement... I wonder if they ever considered what would happen if the shot would miss the carpet they put behind.. to put it in their own words, the bolt could "go across the room, bounce off of various objects, and become swiftly lodged into our soft brains".
For better security, I would suggest automating the whole process a bit further, get out of the room and see the results when done... but may be I'm just paranoid...
DrkBr
This has potential - kebab-making for the extreme sports enthusiast.
If I remember correctly, he used a camera with an open shutter in a darkened room, triggering the strobe with the sound of the muzzle blast and an electronic delay.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Watching an exploding lemon, caught endlessly in the throes of passionate destruction, well...it feels a little pornographic, doesn't it?
He was a MIT professor, prolific inventor, artist and by all acounts an incredibly nice person.
He's also responsible for one of my favorite quotes:
Work like hell
Tell everyone everything you know
Close a dread with a handshake
Have fun
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
I have an uncle who assists police with forensics work (he's a dentist during the day, but the town he lives in is small and they need all the help they can get).
One thing that stumped the police was a scene where a single bullet came through the windshield of a car and hit the driver.
That in itself wasn't surprising. What was surprising is that the back of the guy's head got completely blown off - a really huge hole that they couldn't explain at first.
So they did an experiment using high-speed film/camera in a lab, where they got a few windshields to play with and a few human skull mockups, and a gun with bullets of the same make/model as the one they've identified.
I saw a copy of (one of the) pictures they took, which was quite amazing (yet horrifying if you think what happened) - a giant cone of glass shards projecting outwards from where the bullet entered the windshield. The cone was small near the front of the driver's head, but while passing through the skull it continued on its outward path and blew a massive hole in the back.
Scary stuff.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
A friend and I once built a sprinkler-valve based widget that was quite impressive. In our first test, however, we left the barrel off, and the resulting pressure wave nearly deafened us. Those valves flow pretty well...
You know how they tell you to shoot stuff into a hanging blanket, because it 'catches' the object? Our first 'victim', a magic marker, went THROUGH the blanket and was never seen again.
We developed the world's fastest(and messiest) french fry maker(use your imagination- sporting goods involved)...shot a 4-foot broom handle a couple hundred feet into the air and down his yard(looked like a mini-cruise-missile)...discovered it made an excellent fire extinguisher(fill barrel with water, cork, aim, blammo- between the gust of air and the water/steam, you could do a serious number a good sized fire with just two cups of water)...etc. You could even launch cylinders of compressed snow(trick is to compress it enough that it doesn't disintegrate on launch, but doesn't hurt anyone/anything when it impacts..although ice rods looked awesome fired at a brick wall).
The best was when my friend's parents got home. His mother walked out onto the porch first. "Oh my GOD, what are you DOING?" His father followed, saw the compressor, air tanks, etc..."Oh cool, whatcha guys doin'?" :-)
Please help metamoderate.
Actually, it leaves the man at a much slower speed. 128mph is the speed it leaves the woman's mouth.
Cheers.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)
Only these guys used real guns, no some sissy PVC contraption: http://www.bitpress.com/dc/ The 7 cans is my favorite. :)
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
well, this is hosted on the mit.edu web server. i would hope that of all web servers on earth, mit's could survive a slashdotting.
http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/exhibit-3.html
My favourite is the playing card shot half
Rover photos and exlploding fruit...
/.
After all the RIAA, Patriot Act, SCO, Microsoft, Linux legal articles it is nice to relish in why we keep coming back to
Not since the highspeed CD-ROM spinning has there been something as geeky neat as this...
1. 8 year old male
2. All-syrup squishee. Add caffeine to taste
3. Hand the kid the camera.
That should be enough for the kid's reflexes to match this elaborate setup.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
Using a quite similar approach, the guys from Frozen Reality take even more immpresive Pictures in 3D.
Their system is built from 8 identical digital cameras set up in a half-circle around the target object, all triggered by a single flash.
The images are processed my a morphing program and create stunning movies of exploding balloons, a metal ball crushing a stone plate etc.
I decided, at my 8-year-old's insistence, to build a tennis ball thrower for my 2 year old Yellow Lab. I went and found some parts - basically two 2-foot lengths of 2" PVC, some various PVC connectors, a switch box with a 9 volt battery, all wired to a sprinkler valve between the two pieces of PVC. It looked like an awkward "U" of PVC and electronics taped together.
One of the PVC tubes had an endcap with a welding pressure guage threaded into it, along with a brass air valve. The PVC was rated at something like 400 psi. But, I figured, for my test, I would stick to something low, like around 35 or 40.
So, I'm out in the garage, dog anxiously at my side, filling up the pressure tube to about 45 psi. I let it sit, stood back, and everything seemed to hold well for about 60 seconds, so I thought, "Yeah, this is safe. Cool!"
I started looking around for the tennis ball I've brought with me to take it outside and try it. I turned around to pick it up off the floor, and there was this HORRENDOUS BOOM!!! followed by some crashing around and various things falling off of shelves.
I collect my thoughts, and after making sure all my limbs and digits are still on, I look over at the garage door. There is a large, pumpkin-sized dent in the door - about 5 inches deep - with a beautiful hole about the size of the $40 pressure guage at the center of it.
I looked around for the dog, who'd been at my side, and found nothing but a cute little urine trail off into the corner of the garage where the dog was cowering.
Jesus. What the hell happened?!? Apparently, the glue wasn't quite dried on the PVC - it was only about an hour old, and the end of the pipe blew off, putting a huge dent in my garage door, and blowing the rest of the contraption back across the shop, knocking down canning jars and various stored things.
So, I coaxed the dog out of the garage for a few minutes, and walked out into the sunlight to shake my head and give up on this, and hear, "Hello?!? Everyone OK?!" It was a COP!
Apparently several people had called about the shotgun/explosion/whatever and the cop was highly concerned. Nothing like seeing a cop, gun drawn, coming aroudn the corner of your house.
Anyway, I was told in no uncertain terms that it was illegal to play with any of this stuff (yes, even only compressed air) within city limits, and...well...I can see why.
Poor dog. I just throw the ball, these days.
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.