Need some help finding something - magnetic "goop"

[hydin]

A few years ago, I had picked up a toy that was basically magnetic slime. It was black, in a small jar, and came with a small magnet embedded in a bright green plastic thingie. (dunno the technical name, it was just a weird green magnet shaped U)

Any chance someone has an idea what I am talking about and if they still make it, or where it could be found?

I tried google, and found out a lot of info about various superfluids and liquid dynamics but no luck on the goop I was looking for.

I need it for a display, hence the prop forum

Thanks
Chris

 

[Slider]

You mean Ferrofluid?

 

[hydin]

Everything I found on FerroFluid suggested that it was something pretty dangerous (i.e. don't want to touch it with bare hands). The stuff I am talking about was ok'd for kids age 6 and up (I guess assuming they don't eat it and go into an MRI... igh)

But yea, imagine a thick, runny gel like (egg yolk maybe?) ferrofluid and you got it

Chris

 

[exoray]

Make any of the popular DIY PVA slimes you can find with Google (or get over the counter slime) add powdered triiron tetraoxide (black iron oxide, it's about $7 a pound from a lab or fireworks supply house) mix...

Buy a kit...

http://www.physlink.com/estore/cart/SciFiSlimeKit.cfm

Or buy it done...

http://www.physlink.com/estore/cart/DeepSpaceSlime.cfm

 

[hydin]

Awesome. thanks.

I was looking and found lots of slime kits, and magnet letters and project, but this is the only one that says magnetic slime in there. Guess "Goo" and "goop" didn't work out well as keywords....

Stage one.. complete

Chris

 

[Ramiel]

Why Am I thinking at Venom?... :confused

 

[Endless Wonder]

I don't know if you have Hobby Lobby stores in your area, but I'm almost positive I've seen it there in with the other science-y stuff.

 

[hydin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ramiel @ Mar 28 2007, 09:52 PM) [snapback]1450644[/snapback]</div>

Why Am I thinking at Venom?... :confused
[/b]

Close, I have had a WIP of that for about... oh.... 4 years? 5?. Never really took off past the design stage.

This is for something similar but not nearly as known, or as awesome as the spidey 3 cgi would look like.

Chris

 

[Ramiel]

Well, I don't know if this could be useful, but...
What do you think about this:

And this is the final display

So, when the slow motor spins the disc with the magnets, the slime will move...

 

[hydin]

That is really close to my doodling

Instead of a bell jar though, I had a cylinder with a top on there.

The only real downside is that it's pretty hard to get magnets "strong" enough to move the liquid, but not too strong where they just stick to the bottom. I am going for a random "wiggle" look, and with the magnets on the rotating disc it would just look sort of like a revolving/spinning batch of goo.

GMTA though
Chris

 

[Lord_Gita]

What about two opposite spinning discs with randomly space magnets on both discs?

 

[airhead]

You might get a rippling effect with a viscous liquid like gear oil and a bunch of iron filings. The iron filing would "stand up" in the magnetic field. If you mounted the magnets on pivoting arms and raised and lowered the arms with a motorized cam, you could get a more random effect, as opposed to a wave that just travelled around the liquid.

airhead

 

[airhead]

Saw this over on "boingboing.net" and though it sounded just like what you may have been looking for:

Ferrofluid sculptures

Artists Sachiko Kodama and Yasushi Miyajima create magnificently surreal kinetic sculptures where a liquid filled with nanoscale ferromagnetic particles flows, rotates, and shapeshifts around a simple iron tower structure in response to shifts in a magnetic field. The piece is titled "Morpho Towers — Two Standing Spirals" (2006-2007). From the project description:


This technique uses one electromagnet, and its iron core is extended and sculpted. The ferrofluid covers the sculpted surface of a three-dimensional iron shape that was made on an electronic NC lathe. The movement of the spikes in the fluid is controlled dynamically on the surface by adjusting the power of the electromagnet. The shape of the iron body is designed as helical so that the fluid can move to the top of the helical tower when the magnetic field is strong enough.

The surface of the tower responds dynamically to its magnetic environment. When there is no magnetic field, the tower appears to be a simple spiral shape. But when the magnetic field around the tower is strengthened, spikes of ferrofluid are born; at the same time, the towerÂ’s surface dynamically morphs into a variety of textures ranging from soft fluid to minute moss, or to spiky sharkÂ’s teeth, or again to a hard iron surface. The ferrofluid, with its smooth, black surface that seems to draw people in, reaches the top of the tower, spreading like a fractal, defying gravity.

Link to the YouTube video, Link to the Morpho Towers project page (Thanks, Mike Love.)

posted by David Pescovitz at 11:16:38 AM

airhead

 

[juno]

Ferrofluid is great stuff. I got a bottle some time ago and had loads of fun with it.