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Models shared by the SO3D.xyz community. Open any of them in the generator to see exactly how it was built, remix it, or print it as-is. Browse the model library by category

Preview of UV-bead sunscreen tester
By Krypto
Complexity
Medium
MAIN PURPOSE: Prove a sunscreen still works with beads that change colour in sunlight
Is last summer's sunscreen still any good? Fill both dishes with UV colour-change beads, stretch cling film over each, and rub a little sunscreen onto the film over the SPF dish. Put them in the sun: the BARE beads turn bright purple and pink in seconds, while the protected beads stay pale if the sunscreen is working. Try different brands, factors and old bottles, or wipe some off to see why you need to reapply.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Solargraph sun-trail camera
By Krypto
Complexity
Multi-part assembly
MAIN PURPOSE: Record six months of the sun's path on one sheet of photo paper
A camera with a six-month exposure. In a dark room, curl a sheet of ordinary photographic paper round the inside of the back wall, close the lid and tape it. Strap the box to a post or railing facing the sun (south in the northern hemisphere) and leave it from one solstice to the next. When you open it, do not develop the paper: scan it. Every sunny day has burned its own arc across the sky, with the gaps showing the cloudy days, over a ghostly image of the view.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Pepper's-ghost haunted box
By Krypto
Complexity
Multi-part assembly
MAIN PURPOSE: Make a ghost appear and vanish inside a box using a hidden sheet of acrylic
A Victorian stage trick in a box. Look through the window and you see a dark little room. Switch on the tealight in the hidden side chamber and a ghost (any small figure or a cut-out picture you put beside the light) appears floating in the middle of the room, then fades away when you switch it off. A clear sheet standing diagonally across the box reflects the lit side chamber over the room behind it: the same trick, called Pepper's ghost, that makes holograms on stage and ghosts in theme parks.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Coin-toss bell-curve tower
By Krypto
Complexity
Advanced
MAIN PURPOSE: Watch a bell curve build up, one bead for every shake of eight coins
Shake eight coins in the front tray, count the heads, and drop a bead into that column, from 0 to 8. Do it fifty times and the beads build a bell curve you can see through the clear walls: 4 heads stands tallest because there are 70 ways to get it, 3 and 5 come close behind, and 0 or 8 heads almost never happens (1 way in 256). It is the binomial distribution, the maths behind the famous Galton board, built by hand one shake at a time.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Lo Shu magic-square snack tray
By Krypto
Complexity
Advanced
MAIN PURPOSE: Serve snacks in nine bays numbered so every line adds up to 15
According to legend, a turtle climbed out of the Luo river 4,000 years ago with this pattern on its shell: the numbers 1 to 9 in a square where every row, column and diagonal adds up to 15. Put that many sweets, nuts or grapes in each bay. Whoever picks any straight line of three gets exactly 15. For a puzzle, empty it and ask a child to put the numbers back so the magic still works.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Cookie moon-phase tray
By Krypto
Complexity
Advanced
MAIN PURPOSE: Scrape sandwich cookies into the Moon's phases and lay them round the Earth
Why does the Moon change shape? Twist apart eight sandwich cookies and use a spoon to scrape the cream into each phase: none left for the NEW moon, a thin crescent, half for FIRST quarter, nearly all, all of it for FULL, and back again to LAST quarter. Drop them into the wells in order round EARTH, with the new moon nearest the SUN on the front. The tray shows that the Moon is always half lit by the Sun, and the phase is just how much of that lit half we see from Earth. Then eat the evidence.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Feely-box guessing game
By Krypto
Complexity
Multi-part assembly
MAIN PURPOSE: Guess hidden objects by touch while the audience watches through the back window
Put something mysterious inside: a peeled grape, a pine cone, a toy dinosaur, cold spaghetti. The guesser reaches in through the two arm holes and has to name it by touch alone. The audience can see everything through the window at the back, and their faces are half the fun. It also builds vocabulary and touch skills for young children, and the lid keeps the next surprise hidden.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Snail-racing championship table
By Krypto
Complexity
Simple
MAIN PURPOSE: Race garden snails from the centre circle to the edge, championship style
Every July the village of Congham in Norfolk holds the World Snail Racing Championships, on a round table: the snails start in the middle and the first to reach the outer edge wins. This is the home version, with START engraved in the middle and FINISH round the edge. Line them up, say "ready, steady, slow!", and settle in. The record is two minutes for 13 inches, so bring snacks.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Grow-tall savings tower
By Krypto
Complexity
Advanced
MAIN PURPOSE: Save coins in a money box that grows a level taller as each one fills
Saving is easier when you can see it grow. Coins drop through the slot in the top cap and pile up from the bottom, visible through the clear walls. When the coins reach the top of a level, add another one underneath the cap: the tower literally gets taller as the savings grow. Write the goal on the cap with a marker, and lift the levels apart to count up.
AR view Open in app
Preview of Einstein-tile coaster
By Krypto
Complexity
Simple
MAIN PURPOSE: Protect the table with coasters in the one shape that tiles without repeating
In 2023 an amateur mathematician found the shape people had searched for since the 1960s: the "hat", a single tile that covers a plane completely but never in a repeating pattern. Mathematicians call it an einstein, from the German for one stone. Each coaster is one hat. Lay a set out on the table and they fit together endlessly without the pattern ever repeating. It is a conversation piece, a puzzle and a coaster at once.
AR view Open in app

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