This ball at the Liberty Science Center expands and contracts in the museum’s main lobby. Unsure of what to call it other than “that ball in the lobby,” I did a little research. The structure is known as a Hoberman sphere, and this is the world’s second largest one, according to Wikipedia. The site also says that the LSC’s sphere is older and about 1 foot smaller than the current record-holder for world’s largest, which is in a science center in Estonia.
I’m disappointed to have to cite Wikipedia instead of the Liberty Science Center itself, but information is not as easily found on the LSC’s site, and time is short. I easily found an opportunity to buy a plastic toy Hoberman sphere for $40 from the museum (no thanks), but was unable to locate a page about its impressive and world’s-second-largest installation.
The museum’s blog has a post about another sculpture by Chuck Hoberman that he created for its exhibition on the Rubik’s Cube. The post says that the Hoberman Sphere has welcomed visitors since the museum’s opening in 1993. A post on the Hoberman Associates website points out that the sphere recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Whatever you call it, the sculpture is fun to watch–endlessly, and sometimes suddenly, expanding and contracting.
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I’m participating in the A to Z Challenge for the month of April. The idea is to post every day, except Sundays, and end up with one post for each letter of the alphabet. It’s a good challenge to help me to blog every day.
It’s surprising how astonishingly difficult it is on so many websites to find what any reasonable person would consider key information. Makes a person a bit bonkers. I’d love to see the Hoberman Ball in action–that must be quite spectacular.
Yes, I thought the museum would have had a page dedicated to it, at least to brag about it. You may be able to find a link to a video, I think I saw a youtube link high up in the search results for Hoberman sphere. If you are near New York City the LSC isn’t far away. I’m glad you found my post interesting!