A sphericon would certainly make an interesting bowling ball, owing to the odd way it rolls.

It would be interesting to watch sphericons roll down a track, trying to hit some pins.
-- DesertFox, Feb 16 2005

Sphericons http://www.pjroberts.com/sphericon
Borrowed from another idea [DesertFox, Feb 16 2005]

Oloid mixer http://www.oloid.ch/indextop.php3?js=1
[JesusHChrist, Feb 16 2005]

sphericon animation http://www.pjrobert.../foursphericons.php
[JesusHChrist, Feb 17 2005]

Just if you guys are interested http://www.cs.berke...CULPTS/collins.html
Brent Collins is the worlds greatest sculptor. Pax Mundi at the bottom of the page is sphericon-like. [JesusHChrist, Feb 17 2005]

Bathsheba http://www.bathsheba.com/
Another great sculptor [DesertFox, Feb 17 2005]

Tom Longtin's amazing impossible gears http://www.sover.ne...gtin/index_old.html
Yeah Bathsheba and Tom Longtin (see Quicktime Gears Animation) [JesusHChrist, Feb 17 2005]

What you bin smoking [DF]? This is an absolute corker, I couldn't imagine anything sillier.
-- wagster, Feb 16 2005


I had a whole idea ready to go on this, only I called it sphericon skittles. I researched all the regional variations of skittles. You can't put a lot of force behind a sphericon like you can a bowling ball. Just a little push. Otherwise, it will skid and tumble. So sphericon skittles is played on a sloped alley.

The only reason I didn't go with it was, when I tested out the sphericon on an inclined plane, the direction it went in was pretty much determined by the direction it was set down in. Once you learn the correct direction to set it down in, you're pretty much just watching the thing waddle. It's a little random, which makes it a bit like pinball, but slower. If you increase the incline of the plane to speed it up, the thing just tumbles. That's why I did the sphericon toy instead, which also makes use of the peculiar way the spericon rolls.
-- robinism, Feb 16 2005


Sphericons might have nice mixing properties. See animations of sphericons rolling against eachother on the Collin Roberts website. Thos edges sort of act like little blades. Also there's an oloid mixer on Google Images that you put stuff in, and it mixes it up. (link)
-- JesusHChrist, Feb 16 2005


Where did you get a sphericon from?
-- wagster, Feb 16 2005


[Wags], I cut it out of paper. There's a pattern on Roberts' website. Not heavy enough to simulate a bowling ball, but interesting.
-- robinism, Feb 17 2005


The link works now.

Those gears are amazing.

Originally read as "Tom Longtin's amazing impossible ears"
-- DesertFox, Feb 17 2005


I think that the Egyptians are way ahead of us in Sphericons. It is Egypt's closest guarded secret. They roll them away at night before we can see them.

It's how they get the wavy sand dunes.
-- DesertFox, Feb 17 2005



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