Pneumatic Sponge Ball Accelerator, A ‘DIY Particle Accelerator’ Featuring 1,000 Sponge Balls

The Pneumatic Sponge Ball Accelerator is an art installation by Berlin-based inventor Niklas Roy that features 1,000 sponge balls traveling through a series of pneumatic tubes inspired by particle accelerators like CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The tubes are power by household vacuum cleaners — which help the balls travel at speeds of around four meters per second.

As I’m a fan of science and physics in particular, I find it a pity that the current particle accelerators make the observation of the little speedy particles so complicated. This should be something that a broader audience can enjoy!

Roy is the self-described “inventor of useless things” behind such products as The Perpetual Energy Wasting Machine.