Ok, so today in the design lab we were calibrating a newtons cradle, aka the ball clacker, and it struck us…
a giant track ball newton’s cradle
who’s in?
mm… I don’t mean to ruin all of your fun but since track balls are not very close to perfectly inelastic, they would not work as well as steel balls.
I would like to see how it works though.
-Vivek
yeah, what he ^^ said. Soft spheres don’t work well.
hmm… I wonder if you can find 40" diameter solid stainless steel balls somewhere… now THAT would be awesome (and potentially fatal…).
Not to mention pricey (4" steel balls on mcmaster are 200 bucksish…) ouch
-Vivek
Not to sound stupid(which I’m sure I do), but is a Newton’s cradle one of those things where balls on rods bounce off of each other continually until it stops?
Your contraption would make quite a conversation piece in the courtyard in Atlanta.
yes
2 words: TRACKBALL PINBALL
Trackball kick ball at champs anyone!?
Hmm… A track ball basket ball court?
-Vivek
EDIT: WITH ROBOTS!!! THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!
This. This right here. It’s almost as awesome as trackball dodgeball.
I’m in.
I wholeheartedly agree. We can all leave with broken feet as souvenirs </sarcasm> 
Two words:
Trackball Soccer
I call being goalie!!
Yes, a sport I will actually be good at. 
-Vivek
^^
How cool would that be with robots, trackballs, and hula hoops??
-Vivek
trackball wall ball is pretty fun, track ball golf is interesting, and track ball bowling is nearly impossible!
I vote volleyball…we’ve tried it…it’s hard. The overpass is not a very good net, and it is VERY hard to return after a serve. Still worth a shot though.
My team tried this, and found it actually works quite well. Might have been because we were in a room exactly the same size as the play field, so bouncing it off the walls was legal. It was more like playing volley ball in a hockey rink…
–Ryan
this would require lots of people…
TRACKBALL JUGGLING!
trackball segway polo?