Other

Item Description

The ROMP is an interactive magnetic desktop toy that demonstrates a variety of physical principles such as magnetism, gravity, pendulum motion, and chaos theory. You are bidding on one of the last remaining original handmade ROMPs.

ROMP stands for Randomly Oscillating Magnetic Pendulum and was coined in the late 1980's both to give the toy a name and fulfill a student's English writing assignment in which a difficult-to-describe object was to be described.

The first ROMP was inspired by a similar gadget I saw on my mechanical engineering professor’s desk in college. While his seemed to be more focused on the elegant trusswork of the structure, mine focused on maximizing the magnetic interactions. I made my first ROMP for fun out of a steel panel from a PC case, a dowel from a bird cage, a shish kebob skewer, kitchen magnets, and glue. It caught the attention of a college physics professor and with several large batches of painted steel plates manufactured to my specifications by a local metal shop, I made several hundred more handmade wooden ROMPs that were sold at Oregon and Washington science shops. This was way too much work and since 1998 a mass-produced plastic version has been sold by Hog Wild Toys under license. However, after selling tens of thousands of units, the toy has run its course and Hog Wild has ceased production. A small number remain in stock at various retailers but once those are gone, the mass-produced ROMP will be no more.

However, you have an opportunity to bid on one of last 12 or so remaining original handmade wooden ROMPs. It is made of unfinished hardwood dowels, a durable textured powder-coated base, with 10 movable Grade 8 ceramic magnets (Grade 8 is the strongest grade of ceramic magnet, and much stronger than “craft” strength Grade 5 and Grade 1) and one more magnet attached to the pendulum. The pivot is made of 8 lb. nylon fishing line and is replaceable in the event it breaks, although this seldom happens.

Depending on how the magnets are positioned, they will very energetically repel or attract the pendulum as it swings and create unpredictable changes in the trajectory. There’s no “right” pattern and this isn’t a puzzle…it’s just a way to explore forces of magnetism and gravity in an environment where the pendulum keeps going in random ways for up to a few minutes. You will never be able to reproduce the exact same trajectory due to chaos (sensitivity to microscopic differences in initial conditions or environment). And then you can change the magnet pattern and try something new!

Over the years, fans have created a number of videos and write-ups related to the ROMP, including one in which an LED was attached to the pendulum to create interesting traces in the dark, and one video where a miniature travel version was made to pop up out of an Altoids tin. Only a few videos and write-ups remain online today. You can see the plastic version of the ROMP in action with some (scientifically questionable) commentary by a ThinkGeek reviewer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQxicWZywKA

Item Special Note

In box: 1" x 6" x 10". Assembled: 5" x 5" x 9"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQxicWZywKA