Scene
100 strings
Each bounce ties a string between the ring and the ball and makes the ball faster. The ring has to hold 100 of them. Each bounce plays the next note of Ode to Joy.
Make this videoWhat happens
There is no gravity in this one. The ball starts at 1,100 pixels a second and gets 2.2% faster with every hit. Each hit leaves a string from the point of impact to the ball, and all the strings stay tied to the ball as it moves, so they sweep around the circle like a web. After each bounce the ball's new direction is nudged a little so that its path keeps crossing the ring away from the center, which spreads the strings into a star.
On the 100th hit the ring breaks into pieces and every string snaps back. Across variations the break comes 20.7 to 23.0 seconds in.
What you hear
Every hit plays the melody note on piano with a plucked note an octave below. After 25 strings, a bass note follows the harmony underneath. The hits speed up with the ball, so the last twenty strings come quickly.
Songs that fit
Ode to Joy is the default: it is simple, everyone knows it, and its steady notes hold up when the tempo climbs. Canon in D also works well.
Make your own
Open 100 strings in the maker, pick a song or upload a MIDI file, and download the MP4. Variation 14 is the one in the preview above. The same variation number always gives the same video, so you can share a link and get identical results.
Other scenes
- Spinning hexagon: The spinning hexagon test with a gap in one wall. The spin speeds up with every bounce.
- Escape the rings: A ball bounces inside 22 spinning rings. Each ring has a gap, and the ring breaks once the ball gets through it.
- Galton board: 300 balls fall through 12 rows of pegs. Each bin has its own note, so you hear the bell curve fill in.
- Growing ball: The ball gets a little bigger on every bounce until it fills the circle.
- Every bounce adds a ball: Every bounce can add another ball, up to 200 of them, while a slowly widening gap lets them out.
- Shrinking ring: The ring gets 1.5% smaller every time it is hit, until the ball no longer fits.
- Color war: Two balls paint the ring in their own colour. Whoever owns more of it after 30 seconds wins.
- Ball race: Four balls, one small spinning exit. First one out wins.