Ferrofluid, and more…

Genevieve and thought about building solar powered ferrofluidic sculpture. So we started to play around with ferrofluid – and made a mess. It is cool stuff and can make some beautiful patterns and behavior.

At first we talked about creating a sound with a photocell , using a “light to sound” circuit – The speaker, powered by a solar panel, would create an electromagnetic field, driving cool patterns in ferrofluid….
well, electromagnets aren’t THAT easy…

a light to sound circuit:

So we have since modified our plan, after many iterations… I think we will log voltage and light input over the course of the month, and do something cool with that data (a ferrofluid-type graph?)

We are still hooked on the electromagnet idea and have played around with some (a nail with a coil, a few solenoids) to see what type of voltage we need to input in order to get some interaction with the ferrofluid

MAGNETIC EXPLOSION:

after the mess: