Make Magazine - Volume 14

T W IST ED ,T U G G ED ,A N D TA S TY

M ake a sim ple m echanism that pulls
delicious candy w hile itstretches the
Iim its ofm ultid im ensio nalm ath.

Som etim es the sim plestthings have richerhistories and
m ore com plex scientific co nnections than yo u ever
im agined.S uch is the case forthe taffy pulling m achine.
Taffy pullers m anipulate Iong strand s ofsem isolid,sugary
dough into the delicious,chew y confection called saltw ater
taffy.Afterview ing m yriad taffy m achines in touristtraps
and internetvideos,Isoughtto build o ne for m yself.

W hy? W ell,w hen in operatio n,these devices display
a perio dic,repetitive m otion so m esm erizing that,w hen
placed in the fro ntw indow ofa candy sho p,they invariably
attractIarge audiences and pullin custom ers.

Butthere'sm ore here thanjusta strangelycom pelling

visualexperience.Ibelieve the appealis due in partto
a sublim inalappreciation forthe com plex m ath Iurking in
the m otion ofthe taffy pulling m achine.In the turning
arm s ofthe engine,you'llfind m athem atics com plicated
enough to be the basis ofa Ph.D .thesis.In fact,a num ber
ofacadem icians have investigated the hypnotic,repetitive
m otion ofthe taffy pulling m achine as a portalto advanced
m athem aticalresearch.

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T V PA R T Y TO N IG H T

Re-create a m id-1970s video trip by

plugging this box into any TV and audio
source.B eneath the fake w ood paneling,
a P ropellerm icroco ntro llersim ulates
Atari's classic m usic visualizer.

In 1976,Atariintroduced A tariVideo M usic,a plugged-in
m usic visualizerdesigned by Pong creator Bob B row n that
bridged the yaw ning gap betw een consum ers'stereos and
theirTV sets.T he quirky,psychedelic pixelation device never

caughton,butwatching itinactiontoday (searchYouTube),

one is taken back to anothertim e,Iong before iTunes and
W inam p visualizers.Itw as a tim e w hen vinyl,denim ,Foghat,
m ood rings,Iim ited colorpalettes,and Radios hack's
business m odelaIIsom ehow m ade sense.

A nd w hile Foghat's careerm ay be a distant m em ory,
interestin Atari's Iong-gone device rem ains.So w e introduce

the Pixelm usic3000,aweekend projectthatpaystribute

to those groovy tim es,and to a pro ductthatw as eithertoo
q uirky ortoo revolutionary to m ake itpastits firstyear's
prod uction run.

Today,ofcourse,the technologies thatenabled A tariV ideo
M usic are m uch sm aller,cheaper,and m ore accessible.W e'II
use the Propellerm icrocontrollerand its video Iibraries to
create a sim ple Av M -like visualizerthatfeed s a TV fro m an

1 iPodorotherm usicplayer.

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P iggy B an k

Som etim es it costs m ore to buy it than to m ake it from the m oney itself.

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