Non Newtonian fluid demo unit for ultimate awesome and generating interest at public events (possibly with flashing leds)

[Ryan]

The purpose of this device is to have a project that is easily transportable that we can take to public events and demonstrate science in an interesting way. Some of you may remember the non newtonian fluid experiments we did a while back. 

Now I would like to build one we can take with us to various events.  I would like for it to be self contained and interactive in that it has a knob (preferably ridiculously oversized for its application) that people can turn to change the frequency and observe changes in the fluid response. I also want there to be a button to be pressed (arcade style maybe?) to activate the speaker for a short period of time so that we can save power and wear and tear on the speaker. Rechargeable batteries (sealed lead acid type maybe) would be nice if we have to demonstrate somewhere that we do not have easy access to electricity. If we wanted to make it attract even more people we could put arbitrary LEDs all over it that do nothing but flash in interesting patterns. 

I've started looking into the necessary electronics to generate sine waves for the device. 555 timers seem to be difficult to convert into sine waves, but I did find that jameco carries a function generator kit. http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_20685_-1 

It is also possible to generate frequencies using an arduino 

http://interface.khm.de/index.php/lab/experiments/arduino-dds-sinewave-generator/

The arduino way of doing it has the benefit of being able to easily tack on a standard lcd for frequency display, but does cost more overall. 

We then need to find a way to amplify the sine waves into a speaker, and choose a speaker. I have a 2 channel car audio amplifier that is kinda low power... and probably not very efficient. But it could possibly work. I have no idea how much amperage it requires to operate but it normally drives a pair of 2 ohm speakers. 

and then we need to design a nice easily carried console for it all. It would be really cool to utilize all the tools we as a group have access to to build this as a display piece for what we're capable of. 3D print the big oversize frequency knob, laser cut the case out of wood or acrylic, machine some part of it for some reason? 

Any suggestions or ideas guys? 

[Brad Dudenhoffer]

I like it. We could also have an add-on plate covered with flour, glitter, sugar, or whatever to demonstrate 2d standing waveforms.

[Ryan Raney]

I'm still not sure how to couple the plate to the speaker but that would also be a cool demonstration. We discussed this briefly at the meeting thursday. Perhaps next week we can throw around ideas for actual construction. 

On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 1:52 PM, Brad Dudenhoffer <urba...@gmail.com> wrote:

I like it. We could also have an add-on plate covered with flour, glitter, sugar, or whatever to demonstrate 2d standing waveforms.

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