Big Marble Run Machine: 11 000 Marbles!!!
June 1, 2015 11:13 AM   Subscribe

Rumble roar clatter. Does what it says, etc. Home page of the creator, Jelle Bakker, the Marble Master.

I'm not sure what I expected, but this is pretty neat. The Dutch get all the fun!
posted by carter (23 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Marble madness.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 11:27 AM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


my ears are still ringing and I stopped at the orange marble slalom..
posted by k5.user at 11:30 AM on June 1, 2015


That was a thing of beauty. Mesmerizing and oddly satisfying.
posted by Elly Vortex at 11:30 AM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


That was extremely satisfying!
posted by numaner at 11:34 AM on June 1, 2015


That was quite Gouda! (Sorry for the cheesy pun.)

(No, not really.)
posted by TedW at 11:40 AM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


I want to take my parents’ hyper-intelligent maine coon cat there.
posted by D.C. at 11:49 AM on June 1, 2015


Not so much a marble run as a marble stampede.
posted by ckape at 11:51 AM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's a marble world, we just live in it.
posted by anazgnos at 12:01 PM on June 1, 2015


orange marble is best marble
posted by clavicle at 12:19 PM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


"This video features a man who plays with marbles for several hours each day, his custom-built marble alley, and his very patient & understanding wife." (via Kottke)
posted by Ian A.T. at 1:18 PM on June 1, 2015


And that's what it's like to connect through DFW.
posted by aaronetc at 1:32 PM on June 1, 2015 [3 favorites]


Reminds me a bit of this LEGO Great Ball Contraption, which I think is more technically impressive from an engineering standpoint, even if the scale is smaller. Still, I love things like this. :)
posted by Aleyn at 1:32 PM on June 1, 2015 [3 favorites]


I really kind of wanted that marble thing to end with the weight of the marbles being juuuuuuuuust enough to flick on the switch of a kettle.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 1:47 PM on June 1, 2015 [3 favorites]


This post gave me an excuse to see if George Rhoads was still with us: yup! 89!
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:13 PM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


This reminded me of the movie Koyaanisqatsi (with soundtrack by Phillip Glass) that had time lapse video of masses of pedestrians moving through a subway station. They seemed to follow the same rules of motion as these marbles.

Also I liked the way it showed clustering that occurs in random events. When there are lots of marbles together you get the impression that they are sorted by color because you see large patches of dark ones or yellow ones etc.

Fascinating stuff, i am going back to this one.
posted by charlesminus at 2:22 PM on June 1, 2015


I just watched 6 minutes of marbles rolling around about which I have no regrets. Go Newtonian physics!
posted by asok at 2:46 PM on June 1, 2015 [2 favorites]


Impressive scale but not much art. As Amadeus said, "and then it does that again...?" Many aural opportunities missed (a few bells), color opportunities, jumps, just off the top of my head.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 5:54 PM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Yeah, this is a very big run, but I was surprised at how little was going on. When my son was between the ages of 2 and 7, he was VERY into marble runs/ball machines/kinetic sculpture. There was a great one at the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan where we'd go and just spend an hour watching the thing. That used pool balls, and was the size of a small room, but it did ten times as much as this marble run. I'll see if I can find a video.
posted by rikschell at 6:36 PM on June 1, 2015


Here it is.
posted by rikschell at 6:42 PM on June 1, 2015


It's a metaphor for Hollywood?
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 7:37 PM on June 1, 2015


Despite sinking millions of dollars in R&D, Bally's "Grand Complication" failed to match the success of The Addams Family.
posted by Devonian at 9:08 PM on June 1, 2015


Needs more cowbell.

I'm always delighted by those with the creativity, skill, and time on their hands to do things like this.
posted by bryon at 10:12 PM on June 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


Impressive scale but not much art. As Amadeus said, "and then it does that again...?" Many aural opportunities missed (a few bells), color opportunities, jumps, just off the top of my head.

scully_eyeroll.gif
posted by Legomancer at 6:29 AM on June 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


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