Levitating a Chris Palmer Flower Tower

I bought this original Chris Palmer Origami Flower Tower masterpiece after one of his early exhibitions. It is a single giant piece of paper folded w/o cuts.

Was test driving my new Levitron Revolution with the Flower Tower perched on the magnetic platform ... the results was quite striking ... it was freely levitating and rotating stationary over the base with base illumination on its underside. Could be a cool way to display this masterpiece (or any masterpiece up to 12 ounces) ... and give it an alien spacecraft look.

More info on Chris Palmer designs:
http://www.shadowfolds.com

More info on the Levitron Revolution:
http://fascinations.com/unique-toys-gifts/levitron-revolution-series.htm

Audio segment = excerpt from "Casino" by Acoustic Alchemy (All music rights are owned by UMG).

Video created using MuVee autoProducer 5.0.
Video and pics shot using a Canon PowerShot SD850 IS

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• origami
• tessellation
• tessellations
• geometric
• geometry
• flower tower
• magnetic
• levitation
• levitron
• revolution
• chris palmer
• cool
• geek
• toy

[OrigamiTourist2010]

Well folded tower. Great effect.

[tend2it]

@OrigamiTourist2010 Thanks ... it was folded by Chris himself for one of his exhibits !!!

[acemaster3000]

How do u make this please!!

[tend2it]

@acemaster3000 do a google search for "Chris Palmer Flower Tower" to find his website ... he sells instructions there.

[franktauk4u]

What's the levitation gap between the base and the magnet?

[tend2it]

@franktauk4u - the levitation gap is 5/8 inches between the bottom of the magnet and the base ... this thing is rock solid once the base registers the sweet spot ... and once it is locked in place and undisturbed, you can rotate the base 90 degrees and have the magnet still levitate sideways ... WAY COOL! ... so far I placed a 9 ounce mini pumpkin on it without a problem ... found out that the more the magnets need to adjust within the sweet spot (i.e., wobbling), the hotter the base gets.

[joetheheadcrab]

Do you want to learn how to make this? Or are you going to stay a lazy person and refuse to accept this once in a lifetime opportunity?

[dwyllie]

Great idea.

[tend2it]

@redgator12 - thanks ... of all the origami presentations (table top and display cases) ... I thought this method was quite unique and COOL! ... beware, the Levitron Revolution is quite a challenge to master ... was going to give up on it till I figured out that to get to the magnetic sweet spot you have to use the LED alignment and quickly drop the magnetic platform straight down and adjust slightly to get all LEDs lit ... the Levitron top is a breeze ... this is a bit more challenging.

[redgator12]

Very cool. I love Chris Palmer's stuff, I've bought all of his CDs, and I wanna buy one of these Levitrons now and try that out on his 12-fold Flower Tower. Thanks for the Flickr upload!