Ben Craven's Gravity Demo
An extension of the classic 'whirl a bucket of water around your head' trick, but a whole lot more subtle.
Jonathan Sanderson
Duration: 3:33
Views: 594
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Ben Craven's Gravity DemoYou might remember this film if you saw one of SciCasts' early prototype websites - it got lost somewhere along the lines. But now it's back, in a new and slightly shorter version (since we all seemed to think the original was a bit long).
The demo won the prestigious 'Best Demonstration Competition' at the British Interactive Group's annual Event in 2005, an award which Ben managed to repeat at the event this year. His latest gob-smacker comes from a show he's developed, 'Ten True Thing About Vision' - keep your eyes open, he's popping up to deliver it in various places, and it's well worth catching.
You can find the rest of Ben's site here.
It's always a pleasure to work with Ben, even on a blustery day in Clackmannanshire. To get the wonderful whirling-round-the-head angle, we taped a small and light DV camera to the platform Ben shows in the film, and... hoped. The results are great, I think, though we were both disappointed that the camera upset the balance of the system enough that throwing it in the air didn't seem wise. I plan to try again with my new mobile phone which is much lighter and - crucially - more robust.
Please do let us know if you use this film - from the emails we've had while it's been missing, it's been shown in classrooms all over the country!
-- Jonathan