Toy Physics - Looping Pendulum /// Homemade Science with Bruce Yeany

This is a simple demonstration that can be used to impress your friends using a variety of materials. It also can make a nice investigation for a science fair project or a classroom demonstration. Students can test variables and determine the conditions for the best results. The use of small lights and a camera can help capture the beauty in the movement of the small weight as it arrests the movement of the larger weight as it falls. Or, one other use can be for amusement purposes by turning the demonstration into a game. Any guesses who the wooden action figure is?

this video is a reposting of a previous video that accidentally included copyrighted music. It has been removed from this version

[neilyoung]

I can just hear that conversation, "Mr Yeaney, do you have any idea who tied a pumpkin to the goal post?"

[marianialvaro]

This is pure gold man. Already did the 'put the egg into a bottle' with my kids and will try this one

[BakerSTEMLab]

I LOVE the creativity in these experiments! The activity is already engaging but personalizing the experience by encouraging students to add their own characters will pique the interest of even the least science-minded students. Brilliant!

[forgotMyUsername]

Delightful how you point out parameters that could be optimized, it encourages viewers to do actual experiments themselves -- real science! at home or in the classroom!
I loved a lot of my science teachers, but I think your students must have been some of the luckiest to have such a creative mind illustrating how science is anywhere we want to look.

[bramfran]

The scale up of the experiment was funny 😆, from a toy pumpkin to a real one.

[MrMaxeemum]

We all need a Bruce Yeany action man in our lives.

[ahmetizmir]

Congratulations, it was a nice experiment and it could have been even better;
For example, if the red LED lamp (1:40) here had blinked every millisecond or two during movement, we would have seen the speed/time line.

[lightdark]

That poor pumpkin still being held hostage by that wrench. One day I hope to see it freed.

[Pguy]

An excellent demonstration. Thank you for posting.

[JoaoZagoSJC]

Amazing experiments! And great explanation. Thanks Bruce.

[nourhankhalil]

Amazing experiments! And👌 a wonderful explanation. Thanks, Bruce

[JustPlainRob]

I wish more of my teachers were this fun. Even in science classes we didn't get to do many things experimentally, only reading and tests.

Except the physics teacher who had us make hovercrafts from shop-vacs, plywood, and trash bags... and ride down the hall on them.

[leofraser]

Lovely… and if you release the small pendulum so that it wraps around the vertical posts, it will wrap around each in turn, lowering the large weight a bit each time…

[gerardwalterritchie]

Wonder if this can help as a backup safety harness for people working on high structures.

[augtsu]

To add some real drama to this use a bowling ball. It will be a version of the classic science experiment for conservation of energy/gravity where the professor stands back against a wall with the suspended bowling ball up against his chin and lets the bowling ball swing and return only to stop mm from his chin. Only with this experiment the hope is the counterweight will stop the falling bowling ball before striking the person laying under the bowling ball. Maybe I'll substitute myself with an egg or pumpkin pie instead. Thanks for sharing.

[adamreynolds]

i wonder if uou let the small weight go at different angles and different air drag ratios, or if the string was replaced with floss or thread, and if the pvc bar was metal, or polished metal, also what if you introduce a spring on to one of the weights

[DoNotPushHere]

Now I want to know what would happen if there is a rolling cylinder as the pole. Virtually no friction but angular momentum. The pole would be connected to a controlled mass flywheel. The flywheel would act as if the pole can't rotate at all, but thwn it would start rolling. But when exactly would it start rolling? At what moment? Would it be possible to trim the flywheel angular momentum so that the flywheel initially starts rolling, then stops, and then resumes unrolling the string?
Would it be suitable for a safety mechanism for workers on heights as a controlled deceleration on very passive systems?

[ahmetizmir]

(1:40) I was very curious about how you captured this spiral-shaped photo. Did you use a professional camera, or can it be done with 1 webcam and software?

[Guishan_Lingyou]

I accidentally discover this phenomenon while fishing about 28 years ago. A stray cast sent my bait over the top of a tree that was out in the James river. As soon as the bait hit the water, a cat fish grabbed it. Now the line went up over the tree, down into the water with a fish on the hook. I reeled it up and let down a few times before I decided to try to flick the fish over the top of the tree. Unfortunately, the line snapped when I flicked it. As the fish started falling back towards the water, the line wrapped itself around the tree several times, leaving the fish hanging in the air above the river. A small crowd had by then assembled to watch, and I was trespassing in a fancy gated community, so I thought it was probably time to leave. Sorry to the poor fish.

[brendawilliams]

2:23 your topology is just hanging by the threads😂