Newton’s Cradle

A working version of Newton’s cradle built from Lego pieces? Yes! It’s absolutely possible. It is also another great example that anything can be made from Lego. When I first came across Lego Ideas, I directly thought that building something physics related has to be my first submission. It is just a great challenge to explore the limits of Lego builds, to see if there is one, what I can find. Moving objects are just fascinating for me, how they behave in their environment and how they influence each other. 

As a long time fan of Newton’s Cradle, it was a clear choice for me to try to build that and make it work. 

This model is not just a great build to showcase on a shelf, but also interesting to play with and learn the basic rules of physics. For young and old, it is for all times fun to make a unique model like this cradle. Building it and trying different versions to come up with the final one was a great journey. I can only hope that this journey eventually can be shared with others, to provide as much joy to build as it did for me.

The model is very robust, no falling pieces on collision of the balls. This just shows the capabilities of Lego again, and how great things can be made. Even the smallest 1x1 slope is a perfect fit for the model, not letting any doubt about the stability.

The best part, this can be built with no special parts and yet easy to customize to your own taste. My submission includes the colors I wish to have for such a build, as it looks such fun with the combination of chrome frame and colored balls.

I used 2741 Lego parts to build this model. The balls have a 4x4 plates as base for the sides. Originally I made a 6x6 base, and those were heavy and huge, so I had to scale it down to make it’s current perfect size and form.

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.