Goat Toy Day 17
16I came across this eye candy a week or so ago, Rheoscopic Fluid.
The stuff was created in the 60’s and used for both science and art.
This particular one is called Rheoscopic Fluid Planet, and is available in 6 colors. The ball is flexible clear plastic, and you can even bounce it. Though it rebounds weakly since it’s a soft ball. The outside is mostly smooth, but there’s a significant mold mark on the inside of each hemisphere. I think that’s actually a feature as it disrupts the flow, and creates swirls and eddies around it. They spared no expense on the stand, it’s an o-ring. 
You can buy it direct, or on Etsy but it ships from Taiwan. Etsy quotes $16 for the ball, and $16 for shipping. So you’re probably better off buying it on Amazon for $20-22 and getting free shipping from the US.
https://www.mr-sci.net/products/rheoscopic-fluid-planet/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071KJ8HR5
This is a glass dome version, the metal base is on ball bearings. Handmade in the UK. It lists for about $60, but $33 shipping. Ouch!
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/525623801/vortex-dome-desk-toy-fidget-focus-toy
Best of all, you can make it yourself!
https://www.instructables.com/id/Making-Rheoscopic-Fluid/
Here’s a homemade rectangle.
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I love rheoscopic fluid. I had a toy that I bought in Iceland that I have tried for many years to find again. The fluid looks and acts like regular rheoscopic fluid if move it around, however, if you touched the glass, it reacted to your touch. I can’t figure out what it was. I have searched on and off for the last five years when it comes to mind, and probably a year ago was when I found out that it was some kind of rheoscopic fluid.
If you touched it, it basically made waves radiating away from your touch.
The original toy I had dried out after many years. If I had known I could refill the liquid, I would of kept it.
/youtube Grand illusions rheoscopic
After I watched this video I went down the rabbit hole of many other videos. I love the giant one you showed in your first photo.
Oh man, this one’s going to cost me.
I have to either buy or make one of these things, too cool!
I think that dome is pretty fairly priced considering the apparent craftsmanship involved. But yeah, $33 shipping is a bit of a killer.
Thanks for posting!
edited to add: One of those videos was followed by another video involving ferro-fluid, another thing I’m fascinated by and would love to have in a fidget-gadget kind of dealie.
Need to search for some kind of amazing combination of the two!
@DennisG2014 Have you got a magnetic viewing film?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UV6ZPS
I saw an instructable a while back for making “cloud lamps” with nothing but pearlized liquid soap and water set atop a bulb like a lava lamp. This might be a shortcut to some diy rheoscopic fluid, as I believe the pearlizer is just mica flakes.
@djslack Nice!
https://www.instructables.com/id/Cool-Cloud-Lamp!/
@djslack Did you check the Instructables that’s the last link in my post? A guy did some digging, and with his wife’s help arrived at mica flakes for makeup. $10 at Amazon. As secret ingredients go, that one’s pretty cheap.
@djslack it is mica. I watched many a tutorial. Good eye.
@blaineg I did, but they have pearly softsoap at the Dollar Tree or Wally World, so it doesn’t even require tickling a tentacle in the Bezos machine then waiting two+ days to get started.
I don’t have time to drop in very often these days, but I can’t believe my good fortune to have dropped in today, glanced at a thread, and found the toy of a decade!
And now I’m flipping through this:
https://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com
@sammydog01 oh my God, you’re screwed!
(I love that site.)
I spent a buck on hand soap and used a glass bottle and flashlight. It’s cool. (It’s cooler watching it swirl but youtube takes effort.)
