marble run
Illustration — A simple wooden toy marble run A rolling ball sculpture (sometimes referred to as a marble run, ball run, gravitram, kugelbahn (German: 'ball track'), or rolling ball machine) is a form of kinetic art – an art form that contains moving pieces – that specifically involves one or more rolling balls. A version where marbles compete in a race to win is called a marble race, in which the marbles go through simple or complex labyrinths, seeing which one is the winner, or even loser. The YouTube channel Jelle's Marble Runs, run by Jelle Bakker, has popularized this idea over the years, especially gaining traction during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.
Also recorded as rolling ball road
marble run
Carl Steinbeißer · Public domain
- Field
- toy · kinetic sculpture
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Illustration — A simple wooden toy marble run A rolling ball sculpture (sometimes referred to as a marble run, ball run, gravitram, kugelbahn (German: 'ball track'), or rolling ball machine) is a form of kinetic art – an art form that contains moving pieces – that specifically involves one or more rolling balls. A version where marbles compete in a race to win is called a marble race, in which the marbles go through simple or complex labyrinths, seeing which one is the winner, or even loser. The YouTube channel Jelle's Marble Runs, run by Jelle Bakker, has popularized this idea over the years, especially gaining traction during the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.
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Toys
Toys
Through his video series dubbed "Marble League", also known as the "MarbleLympics", Jelle recorded and uploaded marbles racing through tracks, constructing his marble races to resemble Olympic sports and recording them in a sports broadcast-like manner with crowd noises and other SFX to emulate the atmosphere of a real sporting event.
section The regular rolling ball sculpture, when constructed out of wood, plastic, or metal, with the balls used traditionally being small glass spheres is more commonly known as a marble run. The objective of it is to load a ball into the sculpture, and then allow gravity to make its way down, usually going through various forms of tracks, like, for example, a long twisty channel leading to a shallow funnel.
World records
World records
• Illustration — Small part of tallest rolling ball sculpture, Energy Machine, in Hong Kong Science Museum since 1991 • Illustration — People watching George Rhoads's 1983 rolling ball sculpture 42nd Street Ballroom in the Port Authority Bus Terminal The tallest rolling ball sculpture in the world, at 22 m tall, is named the Energy Machine, and located in the Hong Kong Science Museum in Hong Kong. The structure consists of two towers, balls moving among them. It is also the largest of its kind in the world. The machine contains stream of ball, demonstrating energy conversion, from potential energy to kinetic, sound, light energy, with balls rolling along tracks. According to Guinness World Records, the longest marble run is 2,858.9 meters long and was completed in Switzerland in September 2017.
People watching George Rhoads' rolling ball sculpture 42nd Street Ballroom (1983) in the north building of the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan, New York
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Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Marble Racing Is the Sport That Can Save Us From Losing Our Marbles. SI. 2020-03-22.
- 2.Addley, Esther. On the run: lack of sport drives fans to madcap world of marble racing. The Guardian. 2020-06-01. 0261-3077.
- 3.Knikkers, Jelle (October 28, 2015) "Marble Run Records" Jelle's Marble Runs Accessed:December 31, 2019
- 4.香港科學館 Hong Kong Science Museum. 能量穿梭機 Energy Machine. 2022-08-28.
- 5.Energy Machine Hong Kong Science Museum. hk.science.museum.
- 6.Longest marble run. Guinness World Records.
- 7.Marble Run Records – Jelle's Marble Runs.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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