MAGNETS ARE A CHOKING HAZARD AND WORSE! Magnets are one of the few items that when swallowed may need surgical removal. If you have a child who even stands the remote chance of putting a magnet in their mouth please save this activity until they are older. Alternatively complete adult supervision is required for this activity. To make it safer we used large industrial sized magnets rather than small neodymium magnets which are just too tiny and tempting for little ones to put in their mouth. In preparation for an exhibition of Takis's work I had the opportunity to travel to Athens in 2017 with my co-curator, Guy Brett.

This part takes a bit of fiddling. Read through the entire step and look at the pictures before starting so you understand how the pieces relate to one another. He started to make sculpture which he called Signals and which became one of his most iconic type of work.The people of Monte Alto didn’t live in isolation. Though Chinchilla says the sculptures at Monte Alto are the “most impressive,” several potbellied sculptures were found distributed around the coastal region of what is today Guatemala, El Salvador and the Mexican state of Chiapas, suggesting the Monte Alto influenced other cultures in the region. Chinchilla’s coauthor Roger Fu from Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences tested the sculptures by first running a magnetometer over them and mapping out the areas with the strongest anomalies. Then the team chose four sculptures and ran further tests using a larger, more sensitive instrument. Paris says that this Monte Alto discovery may just be scratching the surface, and that similar magnetic testing should be done on Olmec head sculptures as well as Maya artifacts to see whether the knowledge of magnetic forces was widespread among early Mesoamericans. The ancient people of Monte Alto were perhaps seeking out these basalt boulders that had these magnetic properties,” Paris says, adding that they could have also been effectively using a type of primitive compass in their searches.

Designed and made in the US these use the little known Bismuth which happens to be the most diamagnetic element. That means it repels both north and south poles. With a magnet at the top of the structure which provides the lift you are able to place a small magnet in either gap and watch as it floats, given stability by the diamagnetic property of the Bismuth (only one magnet can be placed in the sculpture at a time, either in the top or bottom hole). And while waiting for the train he becomes inspired by the flashing lights and the antenna and aerials that he sees around the station platform. Spectra fishing line is strong and abrasion-resistant, but it's also a little "slippery" for knot tying purposes. We can use that to our advantage, though. Thread one end of the line through the hole in the clevis pin and tie an overhand knot around the end of the clevis. Our goal is to keep the knot small, so it doesn't show beneath the cube, so the overhand knot is a good choice for that. On the other hand, it will slip, and this is slippery line. The solution is to tie another overhand knot on the loose end of the line to act as a stop knot (see series of pictures below). Pull the stop knot tight, then grasp the clevis pin and pull the other end of the line until the stop knot is pulled up tight against the overhand knot. Now trim the line close to the stop knot and use a flame to melt the new end of the line into a small ball. The ball keeps the stop knot from pulling through, and the stop knot keeps the overhand knot on the clevis from pulling through. If you're starting with the kit skip to the next step, otherwise, read on for help getting your parts together. You'll need:Keep these magnets at least a foot away from all magnetic media, including computers, hard drives, floppy disks, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, and credit cards. Keep them away from consumer electronics, including computer monitors, VCR's, TV's, cameras, cellphones, and personal music devices. Keep them away from things you don't want magnetized, like watches and tools. Keep them away from people with pacemakers or other implants. Along with main sculpture you will also receive six magnets for floating; 2 x 3mm cubes, 2 x 4mm cubes and 2 x 4mm spheres. Knowledge of magnetism could have even predated the Monte Alto culture, Chinchilla says. Archaeologists discovered a magnetized bar rich in hematite dating from 1400 B.C. to 1000 B.C. at San Lorenzo in the present-day Mexican state of Veracruz, one of the major cities of the Olmec. If this bar was somehow used as a magnetic tool, it would mean that Mesoamerican knowledge of magnetic forces predates even the early descriptions by Thales of Miletus. A fascinating and intriguing object that is ideal for the home or office and is sure to amaze friends and colleagues. Step OneIf you are painting these the first thing to do is prime and paint as many nuts and bolts as you like. You may also want to prime/paint your metal lids.