The Impossible Coil™

It's kind of hard to describe this. Look at the video and you'll see it. You get a shorter version of the heat engine spring. Yes, if you buy a heat engine you can do this with the spring from that. But it won't do this until it's run for an hour or so.

This is an intriguing little device. It's like a longer version of the Impossible Spring™, but it's also been trained. Yes, we can train metal. In this case we train it to "remember" a different shape when it's cold. Looks pretty small and simple, doesn't it?

It's small but it's not simple. We call these the "impossible" products because they do things that appear to be impossible. No, they're not magic. Just clever. This coiled piece of wire violates the following rules about how things behave in the normal world.

• When you overstretch a spring you've spoiled it. It can't be fixed in any reasonable way.
• When you cool off a piece of metal it contracts.
• When you heat up a piece of metal it expands
• Thermally induced changes in a piece of metal of uniform material are too small to see with the naked eye.

Not bad. Four apparent violations of the laws of physics in something you can put into your shirt pocket and forget! Can you explain that? Can your friends?

Great gift for the student of any age. Smart kids love this, because they know it's something new and different. If you have a smart child or grandchild they've be fascinated!.