Seismic Accelerator Multiple Collision Demonstrator
by American Scientific

The Seismic Accelerator is a stack of 4 successively smaller balls, three of which are firmly afixed to a plastic rod driven through the middle. The fourth ball has a slightly bigger hole in its center, allowing it to be placed down onto the rod, yet still be removed when the entire stack is dropped.

Because of the speed and velocity with which the top ball is capable of exploding off the stack, we stress that everyone in the vicinity of the experiment should be wearing protective eyeware.

Much like the Newton’s Cradle, the Seismic Accelerator helps illustrate the laws of conservation of energy. When the ball on the bottom of the stack hits the ground, the energy from the fall is transferred back up through the ball. The energy continues up through each successive ball until it reaches the last ball on the stack.

All of the energy generated from the fall and subsequent impact is released to that last ball, shooting it up into the air, giving it the ability to reach up to five times the height that the stack was originally dropped from.

This is very similar to the results of a star has gone “supernova”. Exhausted of its fuel, the star collapses in upon itself (we can call this the fall), and a shockwave speeds outward from the center. Faster and faster it moves as it reaches the lower density layers of what remains of the star. The outermost layer accelerates awa at relativistic speeds, creating cosmic rays that shoot rapidly throughout the galaxy (ie: the smallest ball at the top leaving the stack).

Contents:

-Seismic Accelerator (3 fixed balls & plastic rod)
-3 small “launcher” balls
-1 pair of safet glasses
-1 teacher’s manual

Ball Diameters
-47mm (1 ball)
-36mm (1 ball)
-25mm (1 ball)
-19.5mm (3 balls)