Concrete. :p

I had to look up what the material pictured is, and was somewhat surprised to see that it is polyurethane foam. I thought it was ceramic, but needed to double check.

Really? Phony concrete then.

Well, they were trying to save money.

Want any hints?

Nah, let it go awhile and see what guesses come up. :D

Something for acoustics?

Park bench/table next to a wall.

Hint: It glides.

Uh, a glider? (porch glider. outdoor couch with swinginess)

Nope. It glides through the air.

It's foam, but the foam is just the outer skin. It's metal underneath.

If it looks big, that's because it is big.

Space capsule?

Good enough!

It's the flaps from the wing of the Enterprise space shuttle and the side of the tail. The Enterprise never flew in space, so it had no engines and the heat tiles were made only of foam. (I didn't know that.) But it flew several missions in the Earth's atmosphere, taken up onto the back of a 747 and gliding down.

See the yellow circle for the area of the shot.

Wow - very cool.

Where did you see that? Did you get to see inside?

I think I need to hit the Air Force museum this summer.

I'm surprised the gaps between tiles are so pronounced.

It's at the Air and Space Museum annex out by Dulles airport. It's relatively new. I had been meaning to get out there for a few years, but never did. The kids were never old enough for it to be worthwhile. Until now. And even then, they were kind of bored. It's a bit overwhelming, there are so many planes there, and very few interactive exhibits like kids love.

You couldn't look inside this shuttle, but you could get really close to it.

If you like aircraft, the museum's got a lot of really cool ones. The official name is the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Udvar-Hazy put up big bucks to get his name on that place. He's a very interesting guy.

What is this?

Sorry I am so late in addressing this one. I've been quite busy.

It is hard to explain what it is. This is a close up of a display at the Pacific Science Center. It is a sphere filled with a liquid that has a pearlescent aspect to it. The sphere is completely full of this liquid. It is pretty big, about a foot across. The sphere is encased in a transparent cylinder and the whole affair is attached to a turntable like a lazy susan.

The idea is that you can spin the apparatus around faster and faster and get the liquid going faster too, but lagging. And the equator moves faster than the poles. Then it's fun to stop the apparatus and watch the liquid swirl and eddy in confusion.

Here is a bigger picture of SonofV experimenting on a subsequent trip.

frost/ice crystals on the edge of your car hood?

Sounds like a mini Jupiter. Cool.

Correct. The roof of the car Monday morning was covered with frost. But this was quite unusual. Each little ice crystal was a little rod that stood up. The effect was like fur or velvet.

Another pic for context later.

Hoar.

Seems like I read sumthin' about each hoarfrost crystal grows under a speck of dirt or dust. I've seen it quite often early in the morning, it doesn't last long.

My turn.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...n/WhatIsIt.jpg

Looks like a car radio?

Not audio but...

I guess I won't be giving much away by saying that it's a close up.
The face is probably an inch and a 1/4 across.

Oh, well if it's not audio it must be a super iodine laser aimed, charcoal boilered, ruby axel bearinged, Transmogrifier. :haha:

I have absolutely no idea what it is. Clearly, it's got an electronic component to it. But the rest looks rather strange. Reminds me of some sort of specialized lab equipment.

Edit: It looks like some sort of clear chamber containing a weird mixture of fluids that don't actually mix, with some sort of electronic sensor off to one side.

Nice, xoB. In about 18 minutes I'da been agreeing with you!

Not a chamber, it's solid.

and light emits through the colors? I believe the lenses are missing from the image. . . Am I even close?

Ex*treme*ly close, classicman.
The colors you see are not relevant to the function.

inkjet printer?

The worst part is.... I know I've seen that i the past and because of my misspent youth I cannot remember what it is. The memory is there, but I cannot grasp it firmly.

I have no recall left - just recognition. :eyebrow:

the thing to the far left looks a lot like a CCD. Is the clear (full of spots) hunk in the middle a prism? It almost looks like it has a diagonal seam in it for splitting a beam. If it works with lenses, it must be part of some sort of scanner, like a photocopier.

A video projector.

DingDingDing!
We have a winner!

That view is of the business end of the heart of a 3LCD projector.
The corner of one of the LCDs is visible with the orange ribbon connector coming out the top.
Here is the full size photo.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...n/P1000179.jpg

glatt came close with the CCD and the diagonal seam.
It's actually two prisms joined to make a cube.
The color blotches are from the glue/epoxy used to attach the mount to the cube.
The angle of the shot accentuates that, but it does not interfere with the function.
Here are some shots of the stripped down cube.
It also has a di-chroic coating which makes for a really eye-catching bauble to put in a sunny window.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...n/P1000504.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...n/P1000505.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...n/P1000506.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...n/P1000507.jpg

These shots are of the same cube at different angles.
In the second shot you can see a double reflection of my camera lens.

The company I work for installs and services audio/video equipment, and I took apart a dead projector to remove the circuit boards which are considered hazardous waste and can't be thrown in the trash.

There were also lots of lens, mirrors, and pieces of filtered/polarized glass in the "light tunnel assembly" as it's called.
A lamp sends light through the tunnel and probably a dozen lens/mirrors/filters before it is sent through the LCDs which actually form the image.
The image then comes out the open face of the cube before going through the focusing lens which projects it onto a screen/wall.

{Honorable mention to classicman, you almost had it!}

I call dibs one of those cube thingies if you ever get a chance to take another one apart!!

Cool!

I'm confused, did this one project in three directions?

Nope, other way around.
The light tunnel split the light beam into 3 sources with {I assume} different qualities, then through the LCDs.
The double prism cube joins the 3 image sources into one which comes out the open face viewed in the 1st shot.

LabRat, I'll let you know if one comes available.

I thought it had one diagonal seam, but it looks like it has two seams. It makes much more sense to me now, considering the paths the 3 light sources must take to combine onto the screen into one image.

Thanks, beauregaardhooligan, for a great "what is this."

Nice diagram, glatt.
As for the seam, I'm pretty sure there's just one.
You can see it pretty clearly in the 1st and last nekkid cube pix.

Ah, now I got it. I wonder if the first dichroic mirror is different from the second, or if red does indeed get twice the light of the other two colors?

Thank *you* sir, and everyone else, for riding theCellar.org amusement park.
Please keep all appendages in the car,
and feed the toad.

I think there have to be two seams, otherwise one of the 3 colors won't make it onto the screen. One is very clear in the nekkid cube pictures, but there is a faint hint of another. Maybe I'm just imagining that I see it, but I'm 99% certain it has to be there, so I think it is.

That is beyond my fathoming, xoB. I don't think the light is broken down by the R/G/B colors, but I dunno.
I *do* know that there are some polarized/tinted pieces between 2 of the LCDs and the cube, but most of the refracting/color separation occurs before the LCDs.
It's quite the wonder.
Now they're displaying projectors at the CES the size of an iPod!
DickTracy is right around the corner, folks.
Hold on to your data, it's gonna be a wild ride!

I'm guessing that is an internal reflection of the seam within the prism?
I'll look more closely when I get home.

I thought a dichroic mirror passed, and reflected, half the light... but not so.

Thanks for the edumacation, Beau. :D

Thanks, xoB!
I got a chance to ask our service tech, and he said that it *does* break the light down into RGB for the LCDs, and the prisms put it back together.

glatt, you were right, there *are* two seams.
The cube is made from 4 prisms.
Then I got to thinking about the dichroic coating and if it's just on the internal faces or all sides of the prisms.
{I think it's just internal}
...then I wondered which faces are tinted for which colors.
...then I tried to imagine assembling one and keeping the colors straight
,,,then I boggled at the tolerances required to make such a seam optically perfect.
...then my brain turned into a torus.

:confused: (oh a torus, not taurus.) :D

I doubt the prisms have a Dichroic coating. They are recombining the three colors

But anyway, that's the coolest paperweight ever. :D

mmmmmmmm toruuuuusssssss.

Absolutely! If I had one, I'd play around with it using a laser pointer. I think the laser would bounce through in some directions but not in others. Fun to try it out.

Laser pointer and a crystal chandelier. :thumb:

Beauregaardhooligan's cube is the new mirror ball. :D

glatt, I've got a laser pointer so I'm gonna try that!
I'll see if I can get a good .avi with my camera and try to post it.
ZenGum, keep your distance, you zombie.

You might want to wear sunglasses when experimenting with a laser pointer.

Good point, HLJ, Thanks!
Maybe some welding glasses?

You might just do a test first. Hold the glasses in one hand and point the laser at them to see how much of the beam goes through. I think different colors of lasers require different types of glasses.

OOooo... xoB, nice signature!
I'm honored.
HLJ, I appreciate the input, that hadn't occurred to me.
I don't expect the light to come out through the top or bottom,
so I'm going to try to rig something up from pieces/parts to make it turn on a flat plane/turntable type of gizatchmo.
Then I'll stand above it with my shades to minimize exposure.