I didn't post for two months, now you know why ! I present you my most ambitious project so far, blue marble 3 ! I'm out of my comfort zone this time because the chain reaction is taking place on two tables, and with 0 fidget spinners. It is the longest in terms of duration and the one that takes up the most space in my room. I tried to use a little bit of everything like rubber bands, magnets, and elements. I had so many failures that I stopped counting, as always only a few tricks were responsible for the majority of failures, can you guess which ones?

Now let's talk about the tricks!

The beginning is mainly moving tracks tricks, I tried to compile all the ones I knew. You can notice that some are improved versions of tricks from previous videos. For example, the first one is inspired by the first blue marble video, but this version is simpler and more pleasant to watch ( ok I lied I still use ball bearings from "fidget" spinners, is that counts? ). Same thing for the grey track that rolls at 0:38 (and the timing is so perfect with this one). The track that rotates 180° in 3D caused a lot of vibration because of the big domino that falls and could trigger the rest too early, that's why I damped it with tissues.

You may be wondering what the two large metal balls attached to the tape measure are for. Two things, first, they slow down the tape to prevent it from flying away on the final impact, and second, they are used to slide the tape down because of the weight. The idea of using this slide came by accident, I saw that each time the tape measure was sliding down so I thought to myself why not integrate it into the trick. The speed of the slide is very random as you can see on the video, only one hair could stop it. It was very stressful to film thinking, "Go ahead... almost... you're going to make it... please".

The bridge of small metal marbles holds only with magnetic force. I wanted to put 8 marbles but the bridge was then too brittle and the marble destroyed it when passing over it. It was hard to break it in exactly the right place between the 3rd and 4th marbles. I think it is the trick that works in the most unexpected way of the project.

The air loop is very fun. The two main challenges were first to inflate the balloon with exactly the amount of air it takes to make 3 turns of the loop, and then to push a plug into the balloon (a small magnet with exactly the right size by coincidence) with exactly the right strength to hold it well but not too much :p You can see big magnets everywhere to recover the plug and prevent it from blocking a track, it was pretty unpredictable to know where it was going to jump. I couldn't put a large magnet too close because it could stop the two small magnets from getting closer or tear the cap off too soon.

Now let's talk about the red table! And more particularly the fire catapult, which is in my opinion the main trick of this video. I wanted to do it a long time ago! It is a cannon made of a metal tube with a small firecracker inside. I wore a headphone to reduce the sound of the BANG (even if it wasn't that loud). The marble thrown by the explosion hits another fixed metal marble that transmits its energy to the blue marble. This prevents the blue marble from being burned in the explosion, after which it could no longer roll.

The final technique with water is an improved version of my 1st water trick in Blue marble 2. It's better because there's a satisfying bubble sound :) It's the last one because once the marble is wet it doesn't roll much anymore and you can't do anything else.

I hope you will like it !