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Step 8Tennis ball
Overview:
Tennis balls are a great little piece of hackery. Imagine all the things you could use a tennis ball for? If I type "tennis ball" into Instructables I get over 5000 hits, which is pretty amazing for an unassuming fuzzy ball. Tennis balls aren't just any old rubber ball ... they have standards. The "official" tennis balls have guidelines on diameter (65.41-68.58 mm) and weight (56.0-59.4 g) and undergo "bounce" tests (a 53in bounce from a 100in drop ain't bad!).
Why not a bigger ball?
Hey I got an idea!... pick a bigger ball and you can fit more lasers in it! Imagine a Laser Basketball... or a football... whoa!... let's save those for a future build. The choice to use the mild-mannered tennis ball was not my first choice, I admit. I built several early versions with a dollar-store foam ball, but then it hit me... I want a ball with standards! The tennis ball is so universal that I thought I would be a good metric to gauge not only this Laser Ball but any future generations that it spawned., plus the tennis ball has the right kind of "feel," just ask any juggler or Poi practitioner. And on top of that I like to think of the tennis ball as the "bottle" to my laser "ship"... full steam ahead!
How does everything fit in there?
What goes on in the Laser Ball stays in the Laser Ball... I made a quick and dirty Google sketchup model of the Laser Ball and frankly there's not a lot "free space" in there! Honestly, looking at that picture how not sure how it all fits in there... but it does!
Check out these links for more information on the tennis ball... wait, it's just a a tennis ball... what else is there to know? Find out!
Tennis balls are a great little piece of hackery. Imagine all the things you could use a tennis ball for? If I type "tennis ball" into Instructables I get over 5000 hits, which is pretty amazing for an unassuming fuzzy ball. Tennis balls aren't just any old rubber ball ... they have standards. The "official" tennis balls have guidelines on diameter (65.41-68.58 mm) and weight (56.0-59.4 g) and undergo "bounce" tests (a 53in bounce from a 100in drop ain't bad!).
Why not a bigger ball?
Hey I got an idea!... pick a bigger ball and you can fit more lasers in it! Imagine a Laser Basketball... or a football... whoa!... let's save those for a future build. The choice to use the mild-mannered tennis ball was not my first choice, I admit. I built several early versions with a dollar-store foam ball, but then it hit me... I want a ball with standards! The tennis ball is so universal that I thought I would be a good metric to gauge not only this Laser Ball but any future generations that it spawned., plus the tennis ball has the right kind of "feel," just ask any juggler or Poi practitioner. And on top of that I like to think of the tennis ball as the "bottle" to my laser "ship"... full steam ahead!
How does everything fit in there?
What goes on in the Laser Ball stays in the Laser Ball... I made a quick and dirty Google sketchup model of the Laser Ball and frankly there's not a lot "free space" in there! Honestly, looking at that picture how not sure how it all fits in there... but it does!
Check out these links for more information on the tennis ball... wait, it's just a a tennis ball... what else is there to know? Find out!
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Nov 11, 2011. 10:53 AMCiege666
says:
I really like this instructable, it seems like a compilation of various others but the result is very interesting to me. Side note: you could have just used the prongs on the rear of the caliper to measure the inside of the tennis ball, but both ways would work well enough.
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