The Wonder of Marble Runs

"Mrs. Bastian, I found 118 marbles in your house!" 

REALLY?

No wonder. We have created marble runs with paper tubes, plastic tubes, and ramps. Experimenting. Trial runs. More redesign. More trials. Marbles rolling down, launching into tubes, landing into paper cups placed strategically. Some marbles going astray. Excitement in the room. Ideas shared. More trials.

Physics. Engineering. Geometry.

Laws of motion. Centrifugal force. Momentum. Potential and kinetic energy. 

More runs. More ideas. More fun!

No wonder our young visitor found so many marbles. 

They had been launched with purpose, some going astray. 

He indeed found 118 misfired attempts. 

Really!

Ready-made runs can be found online. This particular one has blessed our friends with family fun.