The Importance of Maintaining Physical Distance Visualized With Ping Pong Balls and Mouse Traps

The Ohio Department of Health has created a very creative and timely public service announcement that visualizes the importance of maintaining physical distance in an effort to “flatten the curve”.

Social distancing works. We’re all in this together Ohio.

The first scenario in the PSA features individual ping pong balls sitting atop set mouse traps that are placed closely together. When one trap goes off, all of the surrounding traps do as well.

Close Together

The second scenario shows the same traps and balls, but this time they have ample space between them. When one goes off, the others remain undisturbed.

Further Apart

Other visualizations have also been very effective in spreading the message about staying away from one another. Los Angeles artist Juan Declan created several using the analogy of matches.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.