On 5 Feb 2007, at 14:49, Julia Maddock wrote:
> A friend of mine pointed me at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?
> v=Q5nmspVOz_Y
> I think it is designed to advertise a Japanese TV show, but its a
> wonderful collection of Heath Robinson-esque machines that
> beautifully demonstrate coverting potential to kinetic energy and
> back again, plus key concepts in momentum.
It is indeed from a Japanese children's series, called - I think -
'Pitagora suiichi' ('Pythagoras Switch,' apparently). These sequences
are scattered through the show, the bulk of which consists of a
fairly weird mix of physical exercise drills and simple make&do/art.
The mechanisms are extremely impressive, as is the attention to
detail in making the contraptions comprehensible to the camera. If
you saw the BBC4 show 'Simply Complicated' a few years back, you may
have noticed how hard it was to work out what was going on. There's a
level of design subtlety to the Japanese efforts that's entirely lovely.
I'd love to hear of any other projects that take pleasure in elegant
mechanisms. We did lots of yoghurt-pot-and-string engineering on now-
defunct CITV show 'The Big Bang' (1996-2004), but otherwise I've not
seen much. A pity.
--
Jonathan Sanderson
'If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.' (Pascal)
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