How is everyone doing? So I was wondering if I could pick your brains for a bit. I am a teacher and for my engineering design class, we built a course that the students need to create a device and go around. The course has varying obstacles but the biggest problem we have ran into is that there are 2 marble pits the device needs to cross. The pits are 18" x 23". The first pit is one layer deep and the second pit is 4 layers deep. with 1/2" marbles, that is roughly 8280 marbles we would need. I found a site that sells bulk online but that means I would be buying $300 for marbles and hoping the school reimburses me. What I was wondering is does anyone have any ideas for alternative things to put into the pits? My coworkers and I have been looking, but I felt you here would be the best to see what awesome ideas you could come up with.
well first off you ever ask the school to see if they would reimburse you?
Now one thing that pops in my head is the clear stones that some people use as counters for Magic. They are kind of like Fish Tank Rocks and you generally can get tons of them for a decent price, the only difference is they would not roll as easily as say Marbles but they would still offer a terrain challenge to your engineering class.
I can't think of an alternative that is less than 4 cents each with similar properties.
You could purchase 1000 chrome ball bearings for $70 (and probably + shipping), but that's 2x as expensive as glass. And the added weight may be easier for the craft to traverse.
I like the glass bead suggestion and they may approach the same price/unit, but since they are not spherical, I suspect you might need 2x the quantity.
Is there a reason it has to be marbles or perfectly round spheres? You can get about half a cubic foot of polished pebbles (home depot) for $20. If you go with regular gravel, it's super cheap.
Edit: Also, please insert an obligatory crack about engineers here
Thank you,
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Now one thing that pops in my head is the clear stones that some people use as counters for Magic. They are kind of like Fish Tank Rocks and you generally can get tons of them for a decent price, the only difference is they would not roll as easily as say Marbles but they would still offer a terrain challenge to your engineering class.
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You could purchase 1000 chrome ball bearings for $70 (and probably + shipping), but that's 2x as expensive as glass. And the added weight may be easier for the craft to traverse.
I like the glass bead suggestion and they may approach the same price/unit, but since they are not spherical, I suspect you might need 2x the quantity.
Edit: Also, please insert an obligatory crack about engineers here
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