Things I Learned by making a balancing sculpture

Sculpture 1

The first sculpture I made is not very interesting because most of the objects are on a flat surface. Things look better when they are at weird angles rather than upright as they normally are used (the coffee cup) 

I liked displaying the phillips head driver bit inside of the squeezy clamp because of the way that it is on a floating pedestal. This is called a cantilever, which is a projecting beam that is supported only at one end. I tried to use cantilevers in my other sculptures.

sculpture #1. Basically a table

detail of the cantilever

Sculpture 2

For my second try, I wanted to make the tallest sculpture possible. It's hard to see, but most of the sculpture is resting on the speed square. In order to balance the heavy plywood on one side of the speed square, I had to put a bunch of weight on the other side. In fact, the speed square in this arrangement is lever, and the force that an object (or group of objects) exerts on a lever is proportional to the distance between from the fulcrum of the lever and the object. So to balance the plywood, I put it close to the fulcrum and the other stuff far from the fulcrum, so that even though they don't weigh as much as the plywood they could exert equal force. 

sculpture #2. Very tall and scary

The phillips head driver was a stable cantilever because it has flat sides and wont roll.

Sculpture 3

This was my favorite sculpture because it only balances when all the parts are in place. My other projects worked piece by piece, but this one is unstable enough that if one part is removed it will no longer be in equilibrium and it will fall.

Even though I used the plywood as a platform again in this version, it is more interesting because the plywood is at an angle. The SPAM kept sliding away until I hooked the edge of its container on the edge of the plywood. The tape also kept tipping towards the speed square until I put the squeezy clamp in place. 
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sculpture #3. The most advanced yet. Note that few objects are perpendicular to the table.

I didn't think I'd get the phillips head screw bit to stay like that.

Tips for Making a Balancing Sculpture

1. Use a variety of differently sized objects, with some round and some not. This makes everything more interesting in the end.
2. Build cantilevers as much as possible because it is cool when things look like they are floating in mid air.
3. Pick one interesting "moment" and build your project around achieving that. Like in my 3rd sculpture, I really wanted to display the nail inside the squeezy clamp while extending it out past the base of the sculpture as far as I could.