A wooden labyrinth board tilts, rolling a metallic marble through the maze under simulated gravity. Wooden marble labyrinth toys like this date back over a century as a test of steady hands and patience.
Tilting the board changes the component of gravity acting along its surface: the marble accelerates roughly as g·sin(θ), so even a few degrees of tilt produce meaningful acceleration since g ≈ 9.8 m/s².
Rolling friction bleeds off speed over time, while momentum lets the marble overshoot corners and bounce off walls — try the sliders below to see how gravity and friction change its behavior. Drag to orbit the camera and scroll to zoom; disable auto-tilt to steer the board yourself with the mouse.