摘要 |
A marble track is constructed from cubes, base blocks, tower dowels, track dowels and rubber bands. Each cube has four vertically oriented tower bores, through-bores of approximately the width of the tower dowels, adjacent and parallel to the four vertical edges of the cube. Each base block has four vertically oriented tower bores with the same spacing as the tower bores in the cube. Cubes may be positioned on tower dowels extending vertically from a base block, and the position of a cube may be stabilized by a rubber band around the tower dowels just below the cube. A channel in each cube (except the "end cubes") permits a marble to pass through the cube. A channel may be bifurcated, and may have entrances/exits to any combination of the six faces of a cube. Track dowels may be inserted in track bores below each side channel entrance/exit to permit the marble to roll out of the channel and onto the track dowels. To facilitate the capture of a marble falling into a top entrance hole of a channel, the top hole may have a counterbore. Optimal dimensions of the components are related to the diameters of the marble and the dowels, and the side length of the cubes.
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