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Reprinted by permission of Dick Berg, University of Maryland, for use on this website.

The demonstrations contained and referenced herein are listed for the purposes of cataloging and describing physics demonstrations which should be conducted only under the direction of a trained instructional support professional or physicist. These demonstrations are not presented for the purpose of being conducted by persons unconnected to this Facility and/or persons not consulting with or being supervised by the recognized instructional support professional or physicist and his/her staff. The University is responsible only for those demonstrations carried out using its own equipment using established safety and scheduling policies, and bears no responsibility for those choosing to use this source material for their own purposes. All demonstrations described and contained herein are public domain, and can also be found in reference materials in libraries, bookstores, and electronic sources.

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To allow the ring to move left or right or back and forth very fine control of the motors is required.  The control console is used as the point of reference.  If we want the ring to go to the right then every motor that spins around to the right side of the ring must slow slightly relative to the other motors.

Another high tech part of this device is the LED advertising billboard.  Basically there is a single strip of LED that is flashed at the appropriate time when the ring is spinning.  This flashing combined with the eyes' persistence of vision allows you to see words.

The Vectron Ultralite is a version of the original Vectron that is much simpler to use.  There is no tether and no lateral control, only controls for up and down.  The toy will move according to the currents in the lecture room.  NOTE: Works best in a room with flat ceilings no higher than ten foot.