Mechanical Thimblerigger

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+24

1. Bot-fly 292 days ago

Las Vegas during the renaissance?

+14

2. Geekster (admin) 292 days ago

How does it manage to get the ball from one cup to another ? Or is it stop-motion animation ?

+40

3. ValdeLevis 292 days ago

#2 All three cups have a ball in them. The toy varies which two balls that it picks up, a rather clever trick, right?

4. Tarc 292 days ago

I really do wonder if it is made to act randomly, and if so, how it is implemented.
Coding on a computer is one thing, mechanical stuff is another

5. kmmde 292 days ago

#4 the implementation of a rnd()-function isn't less interesting than a mechanical random implementation would be. both have to be pseudo random number generators. and no, i don't think the toy acts randomly.

6. Tarc 292 days ago

#5 Absolutely, having insight into the random function rather than just calling it is very interesting More interesting to me.. but the tools are given, you just need an algorithm.

With mechanical stuff, it would be a challenge, wouldn't it

Now that you mentioned pseudo generator, I think it won't work mechanically, I mean why create a long set of steps manually when you can use gravity and nature to determine which way something falls for example. Using nature this way is something you cannot do on a computer

7. loadrunner 292 days ago

Spoiler:

There is a magnet on a wheel under the cups, the position of the magnet decides which cup releases the ball.

8. manxman 292 days ago

#4 it's not random, if you watch the video again the balls appear in exactly the same order.