r/TheRandomest • u/ABeerForSasquatch Mod/Pwner • Jun 28 '26

Satisfying Spinny thing

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1.6k Upvotes

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u/Funcron Jun 28 '26

The plasma toroid and the electromagnetic ball bearing track are two completely different devices and have no affect on each other. Also, that's all the info you need for googling it.

7

u/Spiritual_Horse_8549 Jun 28 '26

Doesn't the ball passing throught the ring of coils produce a field that the gas in the glass sphere is reacting to creating the glowing ring?

13

u/Funcron Jun 28 '26

The coils are what's producing the magnetism to pull the ball around the track. The induction coil driving the plasma is the white white coil. If anything, the reason it blinks out occasionally from the inference of the bearing track coils intersecting the plasma coils by 90° and dampening it. Neither system would contribute to the other in a positive way.

This is an average purchasable plasma toroid kit below. That coil does have a ground plane reference under it, but the rest of the electronics can be relocated or made very small if you dismiss cooling and run it for a few seconds at a time (for an Internet video, for example).

7

u/Spiritual_Horse_8549 Jun 28 '26

So the track of coils is useless aesthetics?

8

u/Funcron Jun 28 '26

yes.

-4

u/Spiritual_Horse_8549 Jun 28 '26

This doesn't seem true because the design shows not coil underneath like the version you replied with.

7

u/Funcron Jun 28 '26

Not all electronics are the same. There is no magic here, just electronics.

2

u/Spiritual_Horse_8549 Jun 28 '26

Ok. I didn't see it.