Pod Insights Stuff You Should Know SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Yo-Yos Work About this episode You may have played with a yo-yo before -- perhaps you've even walked the dog -- but do you know about the physics behind what makes a yo-yo sleep and wake up? Learn all about inertia, angular momentum and the history of the yo-yo in this episode of SYSK.
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1:05 Speaker 03 Happy continuing holidays, everybody. Chuck here to tee up our next episode on our 12 Days of Christmas Toys playlist. And I am super excited because you're about to listen to one of our older episodes from this list about an older toy. It's all about yo-yos. It's how yo-yos work. Hope you like it.
1:29 Speaker 03 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com.
1:39 Josh Clark? Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W., Chuck Bryant.
1:45 Speaker 03 That's me.
1:46 Josh Clark? Same as ever.
1:48 Speaker 03 Scratching the old back?
1:49 Josh Clark? Yeah, just got a little itch there.
1:51 Speaker 03 You ever use one of those little dealies? The little creepy hand, the little monkey paw on the end of the stick?
1:55 Josh Clark? I have before.
1:56 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:58 Josh Clark? I don't like to do that. It hurts.
2:01 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah?
2:01 Josh Clark? I guess you could call it. It's a painful sensation.
2:04 Speaker 03 I'd get up against a wall sometimes and do the Baloo the bear.
2:08 Josh Clark? That I'll do sometimes, too.
2:10 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
2:10 Josh Clark? But it's weird. Like, I only have back itches in about the same place, and that would be on my left shoulder blade on the western side of it, depending on which direction I'm facing.
2:22 Speaker 03 Curiously, this is gonna be the most interesting part of the show.
2:25 Josh Clark? That is not true Chuck, man. So Chuck.
2:28 Speaker 03 Yes.
2:28 Josh Clark? This is going to be a great one.
2:30 Speaker 03 Okay.
2:30 Josh Clark? I have a feeling this is gonna be one of those ones where it's like, wow, that turned out to be really good. It's physics-heavy out the yin-yang.
2:36 Speaker 03 Yeah, everyone loves that.
2:37 Josh Clark? But the fact is, when we finish this, you're gonna know how a yo-yo works. This is probably the most truly titled, truest titled, episode we've ever done.
2:48 Speaker 03 You think?
2:49 Josh Clark? Yep.
2:51 Speaker 03 I don't know.
2:51 Josh Clark? All right, well, we'll find out.
2:52 Speaker 03 I think it should be called Physics Through the Eye of a Yo-Yo.
2:56 Josh Clark? So, listen. Have you ever seen the movie Harlem Nights?
3:00 Speaker 03 Uh, parts.
3:02 Josh Clark? Dude, that is, go back and watch it again. Like, watch the whole thing. Oh, you're crazy. It's one of the best movies ever. Eddie Murphy, Red Fox, Richard Pryor.
3:11 Speaker 03 Great cast.
3:12 Josh Clark? And like, everybody else in it too. I think Bernie Mac's in there.
3:15 Speaker 03 Awesome cast, terrible script.
3:16 Josh Clark? I don't think the script was terrible. I thought it was great. There's one thing about that movie that bugged me to no end. It's set in like, the 20s, right?
3:24 Speaker 03 Yeah.
3:25 Josh Clark? And throughout the movie, Eddie Murphy uses the word "yo." Yo is obviously a modern term, and it just sticks out like a sore thumb every time he does. It drives me crazy. Like, it drives me crazy that he did it. It drives me crazy that the director wasn't like, "You can't say 'yo.'" This is like, 1920s New York. Yo wasn't around.
3:42 Speaker 03 I don't know that they were going for historical accuracy in that one.
3:46 Josh Clark? They were wearing spats.
3:47 Speaker 03 Yeah, well.
3:48 Josh Clark? So, um, Jerry liked that one. So, I went back and did a little digging, Chuck, and it turns out that yo was in fact around in the 1920s, but Eddie Murphy was still wrong for using it in that capacity.
4:00 Speaker 03 Okay.
4:00 Josh Clark? Okay, so, um, yo goes back at least to like, the 15th century as like, a hunting cry, right? When somebody's like, "Tut-tut-tut," somebody else might go, "Yo." And you go chase a fox. That was kind of the first wave of "yo." As far back as 1859, we know that there were sailors that were using it.
4:25 Speaker 03 Yo-ho-ho?
4:26 Josh Clark? Yo-ho-ho, or also, it was a response for a roll call. Like "yo," like if somebody called your name, you would say "yo."
4:35 Speaker 03 Aki.
4:36 Josh Clark? It wasn't until after World War II, though, that the modern incarnation comes. And it came out of the Italian corridors of Philadelphia.
4:45 Speaker 03 Of course it did.
4:46 Josh Clark? So that's where they think "yo" came from, after World War II. Hence, Eddie Murphy was wrong in using "yo," especially frequently in the movie Harlem Nights. So I did all that research, or I could have just looked into Google Translate from English to Filipino, or vice versa.
5:08 Speaker 03 Okay.
5:09 Josh Clark? And find that it just means "come."
5:11 Speaker 03 Yeah, but I don't think that's what it means here, does it?
5:14 Josh Clark? It does now.
5:15 Speaker 03 Okay.
5:15 Josh Clark? So the word "yo-yo," as it stands.
5:18 Speaker 03 Right.
5:18 Josh Clark? Means "come, come," or "come back."
5:20 Speaker 03 Yeah, that makes sense.
5:21 Josh Clark? Did you know that?
5:22 Speaker 03 I did.
5:24 Josh Clark? You want to talk a little bit about the history of yo-yos? Did you know, before reading this fantastic article, that yo-yos originated, as we understand them now, originated in the Philippines in the 1920s?
5:36 Speaker 03 I didn't know that. I did know that it was around for a long time before that, though, in, you know, other forms.
5:44 Josh Clark? Well, pretty much the same form. There were like two forms of yo-yos in history.
5:48 Speaker 03 Yeah.
5:48 Josh Clark? And one came out of, the new one came out of the Philippines. The other one, yeah, it's pretty old.
5:53 Speaker 03 Well, ancient Chinese, or at least ancient Greeks.
5:56 Josh Clark? Right.
5:57 Speaker 03 More than 2,500 years ago. But they think the Chinese had something similar to that.
6:02 Josh Clark? Yeah, I'm starting to strongly suspect that the Chinese are the origin of human civilization.
6:07 Speaker 03 Thank you.
6:07 Josh Clark? Yeah, they came up with beer.
6:09 Speaker 03 Yeah.
6:10 Josh Clark? Well, they came up with beer. There you have it, they win right there.
6:14 Speaker 03 And it is the oldest toy on the planet, except the doll, the dolly.
6:18 Josh Clark? I thought that was pretty interesting, too.
6:19 Speaker 03 Yeah, of course.
6:21 Josh Clark? Although I wonder if they're kind of diminishing any kind of ancient rituals or rites by saying, like, "Look at this cute doll," when really it's, you know, some sort of fetish.
6:31 Speaker 03 Hmm, I don't know. You never know. So it's been around a long time. They've designed it in different ways over the years. The original design was, had the string tied tight to the little axis there.
6:45 Josh Clark? We'll call it the Greek design.
6:47 Speaker 03 The Greek design?
6:48 Josh Clark? No, we'll call it the Chinese design.
6:50 Speaker 03 Or the European design. Well, not design, but it was popular in Europe.
6:53 Josh Clark? Yeah.
6:53 Speaker 03 And that, obviously, if you ever used an old yo-yo like that, or redesigned yours to where it's tied around the axle, it'll pop up, you know, as soon as you throw it down, it'll pop back up.
7:05 Josh Clark? Yeah.
7:05 Speaker 03 Because it's tied to the axle.
7:06 Josh Clark? Exactly.
7:08 Speaker 03 Right. And you said it was popular in Europe. There were other words for it, other
7:11 Josh Clark? names for the yo-yo before it was a yo-yo.
7:15 Speaker 03 That's right.
7:16 Josh Clark? There was the lemaigrette, the bandolier.
7:20 Speaker 03 The bandolier was British, I believe.
7:21 Josh Clark? The quiz.
7:23 Speaker 03 Yeah, I didn't get a country of origin for that.
7:26 Josh Clark? But it was very popular in Europe. There's a painting of, I think, Louis XVIII. Is he the boy king?
7:32 Speaker 03 I don't know.
7:32 Josh Clark? Whichever Louis was the boy king, of him holding like a yo-yo.
7:36 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah?
7:36 Josh Clark? Like a royal painting of him with a yo-yo.
7:38 Speaker 03 Or the, what was the little hoop on and a stick?
7:41 Josh Clark? I think that's what it was called.
7:42 Speaker 03 That was an awesome game.
7:43 Josh Clark? The hoop on a stick. Woo-hoo. And then, I don't think you can compare the yo-yo to the hoop on a stick.
7:51 Speaker 03 No, I'm not comparing. I'm just saying, I just never got that toy.
7:55 Josh Clark? Oh, okay. Well, here's another one for you. Napoleon was well-known for carrying and using a yo-yo, apparently for stress relief.
8:03 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah?
8:04 Josh Clark? Yeah.
8:04 Speaker 03 Didn't work too well.
8:05 Josh Clark? He was a stressed-out dude.
8:06 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:07 Josh Clark? He needed the yo-yo. But as you said, that's the European-favored or Chinese design, where like the string's tied really tight to the axle, and it just basically goes up and down.
8:17 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:17 Josh Clark? Right? So the Filipino design led to the modern yo-yo as we understand it now. And the huge distinction is that the string is just looped around the axle, kind of loosely.
8:30 Speaker 03 Yeah.
8:31 Josh Clark? Which has the added benefit of allowing the yo-yo itself to spin once it reaches the end of the string.
8:38 Speaker 03 Yeah. Sleep, that's what the, that's why people yo-yo, I think.
8:42 Josh Clark? Yeah.
8:43 Speaker 03 It's all about the tricks. I mean, it's sort of fun for a minute, just to go up and down, but it's really all about the tricks.
8:48 Josh Clark? Right, it's just a stress reliever if it just goes up and down.
8:50 Speaker 03 Did you yo-yo when you were a kid?
8:52 Josh Clark? Uh, yeah, here or there, but even as a kid, like, I could sense that, like, these, these new, modern ones that we'll talk about with, like, ball bearings and clutches, they just seem like cheating.
9:01 Speaker 03 I agree. Let's not even talk about them.
9:05 Speaker 03 It's not even a real yo-yo.
9:06 Josh Clark? So, Chuck, you want to talk about, a little bit about physics?
9:09 Speaker 03 Well, let's finish the history first, shall we?
9:12 Josh Clark? Oh, okay, well, I have plenty of that.
9:13 Speaker 03 Uh, it was, uh, originally in the Philippines, they think, it was a hunting weapon for, like, 400 years.
9:19 Josh Clark? Uh-huh.
9:19 Speaker 03 So, but not like, a little tiny yo-yo. They were really big, and it was basically a big spindle attached to a rope with, like, spikes coming off of it.
9:29 Josh Clark? They were like, the size of a Yugo.
9:30 Speaker 03 Yeah, and I guess the, the, just, the benefit there is that you could get it back after you threw it at somebody.
9:36 Josh Clark? Right, the string was almost just useless, though.
9:38 Speaker 03 Well, it was rope.
9:39 Josh Clark? You could just throw it and run after it.
9:40 Speaker 03 Oh, really? Okay. It was actually heavy rope, and they used it for, uh, hunting, too.
9:46 Josh Clark? Right, well, at some point, down the line...
9:48 Speaker 03 And in war.
9:49 Josh Clark? Well, yeah, you would think. Anything used in hunting, you know, does double duty in war, I would think.
9:53 Speaker 03 Exactly.
9:54 Josh Clark? Anything you're trying to kill.
9:56 Speaker 03 Yeah.
9:57 Josh Clark? Um, the, the, at some point, though, they became smaller, and became toys. And, uh, in the twenties, a Filipino immigrant to the US named Pedro Flores, um, started a company, the first modern yo-yo company in the United States, and did pretty well for himself. Uh, and then in 1929, he sold out to a man named Duncan, right? Donald Duncan?
10:20 Speaker 03 Yes, Donald Duckin', and, uh...
10:22 Josh Clark? Or Duncan.
10:23 Speaker 03 Or Duncan.
10:24 Josh Clark? Properly.
10:24 Speaker 03 And, uh, you know, Flores is in Santa Barbara, and like you said, was selling these things like hotcakes enough that Duncan said, "Hey, let me buy that. Uh, I'm gonna keep the name yo-yo, 'cause it's catchy."
10:35 Josh Clark? Yeah.
10:36 Speaker 03 "I'm gonna trademark it, and now I own it." And, uh, through the years, he had competitors that made similar devices with different names, and they were like, "Dude..." Everyone's calling this thing a yo-yo.
10:48 Josh Clark? Right.
10:48 Speaker 03 We want to be able to call it a yo-yo too. And he said, no, no, I own it. Then the federal courts in 1965 says, you know what? That's generic enough now where you don't own it any longer.
10:58 Josh Clark? Right.
10:59 Speaker 03 They're all yo-yos.
11:00 Josh Clark? Well, what those legal challenges to their trademark, the name yo-yo, was one of the things that bled the company dry. It eventually went bankrupt. Duncan, the Duncan Company went bankrupt.
11:11 Speaker 03 Yeah, the same year they ruled.
11:13 Josh Clark? Yeah.
11:13 Speaker 03 Against them.
11:14 Josh Clark? They were like, well, that's it for us. But they also had other money troubles. They were actually victims of their own success, the Duncan Company was. So they moved in the 40s to Luck, Wisconsin, which very quickly became known as the yo-yo capital of the world. And at their peak, they were making 3,600 yo-yos an hour.
11:32 Speaker 03 Wow.
11:32 Josh Clark? Mostly out of wood at first, maple. They were using a million board feet of maple wood every year. Yeah?
11:39 Speaker 03 That's a lot.
11:40 Josh Clark? And they actually, in addition to their legal challenges, like the money going to fight their legal battles, they were paying tons of money in overtime, too, advertising. And as a matter of fact, I think in 1962, Chuck, they managed to sell 45 million yo-yos. And in that same year, there were only 40 million kids in the US.
12:04 Speaker 03 Wow.
12:04 Josh Clark? That's pretty astounding.
12:06 Speaker 03 A chicken in every pot and a yo-yo in every
12:08 Josh Clark? Exactly.
12:09 Speaker 03 other hand, at least.
12:10 Josh Clark? Yeah. Sure.
12:12 Speaker 03 Well, I guess some kids were yo-yoing with both hands up.
12:14 Josh Clark? They're rich kids.
12:15 Speaker 03 Yeah.
12:16 Josh Clark? But like I said, the company ended up going bankrupt anyway. But yo-yo enthusiasts still look very fondly on the Duncan name. And I think June 6th, yes, June 6th is National Yo-Yo Day, which happens to be the same day as Donald Duncan's birthday.
12:34 Speaker 03 Yeah.
12:35 Josh Clark? Yeah.
12:35 Speaker 03 Well, and the Duncan name lives on. Obviously, you still see Duncan yo-yos. They, they sold out. They didn't just shut down.
12:42 Josh Clark? Well, they went bankrupt and sold out, right?
12:44 Speaker 03 Yeah.
12:44 Josh Clark? Yeah.
12:45 Speaker 03 So, who was it? The Flambeau Plastics Company?
12:49 Josh Clark? Yeah.
12:49 Speaker 03 They said, we'll keep the name Duncan because it's synonymous with yo-yos.
12:53 Josh Clark? Yeah. It's not generic yet.
12:54 Speaker 03 No.
12:55 Josh Clark? No.
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15:08 Josh Clark? There's a little yo-yo history for you.
15:10 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:10 Josh Clark? I got a little more, I'm gonna save to the end. I think you'll like.
15:13 Speaker 03 Okay.
15:14 Josh Clark? I'm gonna tease you with it.
15:16 Speaker 03 Now let's talk about physics.
15:17 Josh Clark? Well, I think this is very interesting.
15:20 Speaker 03 Good.
15:22 Josh Clark? So, there's a two... Okay, you mentioned with the string tied to the classic Chinese design yo-yo.
15:30 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
15:30 Josh Clark? You have one kind of, um, energy going on, right?
15:35 Speaker 03 Yes.
15:36 Josh Clark? And that is, uh, linear momentum. The ability of it to go up and down. Or, I should say, down and up, right?
15:43 Speaker 03 That's right.
15:43 Josh Clark? With the Filipino design, the modern design, it has two kinds of potential energy. It has that same linear momentum to go up and down, but it also has angular momentum. And angular momentum is, um, its ability to spin on an axle.
15:57 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:58 Josh Clark? Okay? So you've got two things going on. And like you said, when the, uh, yo-yo hits the end of the line of its linear momentum, it can still, it's built up, since it's wound around the spool.
16:08 Speaker 03 Yeah.
16:08 Josh Clark? It's built up a lot of angular momentum, so it can just sit there and spin, or sleep, as you called it.
16:14 Speaker 03 Yeah, it actually increases as it goes down, which is the key to keeping it spinning.
16:20 Josh Clark? Right.
16:20 Speaker 03 It gets faster as it falls.
16:22 Josh Clark? There's another pretty cool trait to a yo-yo. Who knew they were so complex? I didn't. Did you?
16:27 Speaker 03 I did not.
16:28 Josh Clark? Okay, so, um, they also have gyroscopic stability, Chuck.
16:32 Speaker 03 They do.
16:33 Josh Clark? Okay, so if you, if you have a yo-yo that's sleeping, and you push down on top of it, like, it goes down and then back up.
16:39 Speaker 03 Right.
16:40 Josh Clark? That's because of its gyroscopic stability. That point that you push down on the yo-yo
16:45 Speaker 03 Uh-huh.
16:46 Josh Clark? is transferred from the front and spun around to the back, so that's evened out, so the yo-yo will just keep spinning as long as it's spinning fast enough. Gyroscopic stability.
16:55 Speaker 03 Yes, that means, uh, a spinning object, uh, object will resist change to its axis of rotation, and if you've ever thrown a football, it's the same thing.
17:05 Josh Clark? Yeah.
17:05 Speaker 03 Or if you've ever thrown a football poorly, what do they call that?
17:09 Josh Clark? A wobbler? A turkey?
17:10 Speaker 03 Wounded duck?
17:11 Josh Clark? Brick?
17:12 Speaker 03 That's why a wounded duck doesn't go very far. Cause it doesn't have that tight spin.
17:16 Josh Clark? Yeah.
17:16 Speaker 03 So it falls off its axis and won't travel as far.
17:19 Josh Clark? Exactly.
17:19 Speaker 03 Same as a frisbee.
17:20 Josh Clark? And then the whole team's mad at you.
17:21 Speaker 03 Basically, anything that spins.
17:23 Josh Clark? Yeah.
17:23 Speaker 03 Frisbees, footballs. There's, there's gotta be a baseball, uh... We could liken it to a baseball somehow.
17:29 Josh Clark? Let's say a curve ball, knuckleball, slider.
17:32 Speaker 03 Definitely not a knuckleball.
17:33 Josh Clark? Slider.
17:33 Speaker 03 It doesn't spin at all.
17:35 Josh Clark? Really? What is it, like a shot put?
17:37 Speaker 03 No, a knuckleball, you, the whole key is, it doesn't move, it travels like this, and that's why it moves all around.
17:44 Josh Clark? Crazy.
17:45 Speaker 03 Isn't that nutty?
17:45 Josh Clark? Yeah.
17:48 Josh Clark? So you've got your, you've got your yo-yo sleeping, you're, you're totally aware of its gyroscopic stability.
17:56 Josh Clark? And you understand that its angular momentum is just awesome, it's far out, right?
18:01 Speaker 03 It's far out.
18:02 Josh Clark? But you want to wake it up, and that's when you bring it out of its sleep and rewind it back up the spool, right?
18:08 Speaker 03 A little tug on the old finger?
18:10 Josh Clark? Yeah, and the reason why is because the loop, right, there's less friction with the loop around the axle.
18:16 Speaker 03 Yeah.
18:17 Josh Clark? When you tug it, you increase that friction and you allow it to rewind.
18:21 Speaker 03 It just grabs a hold of its buddy and says, let's go back up to the palm.
18:25 Josh Clark? Yep, it's pretty cool.
18:26 Speaker 03 Yeah.
18:26 Josh Clark? I like yo-yo physics a lot.
18:30 Josh Clark? So we basically just talked about the two hardest parts, right? Sleeping and waking.
18:35 Speaker 03 Yeah, and like I said, sleeping is the key to do any kind of trick like walking the dog.
18:42 Josh Clark? Yeah.
18:42 Speaker 03 Which I was pretty good, I used to could do a few yo-yo tricks.
18:45 Josh Clark? Really?
18:45 Speaker 03 Yeah, I could walk the dog and I could do, I could do the deal where you, you make a triangle and then tick tock through the triangle.
18:53 Josh Clark? Something like a cradle or, probably the cat's in the cradle?
18:58 Speaker 03 Let's call it a cat's cradle, and then I could, I could do the around the world.
19:02 Josh Clark? Wow.
19:03 Speaker 03 Around the world.
19:04 Josh Clark? Yeah, I couldn't do any of those.
19:05 Speaker 03 I'm gonna, this inspired me to get a new yo-yo, by the way.
19:07 Josh Clark? I like the vintage Duncan ones, specifically the yellow ones with the butterfly, like the gold, the gold butterfly.
19:14 Speaker 03 The inverted ones?
19:16 Josh Clark? No, it just had a butterfly on the label.
19:19 Speaker 03 Because they had those that were, that looked like a butterfly that were.
19:22 Josh Clark? I know what you're talking about.
19:23 Speaker 03 Inverted, and I think that actually plays a part in the.
19:29 Speaker 03 Increasing the moment of inertia section.
19:32 Josh Clark? Yeah.
19:32 Speaker 03 I think that's why they flipped it out, to put more weight on the outside.
19:35 Josh Clark? Yeah, okay, you want to talk about that?
19:37 Speaker 03 Why not?
19:37 Josh Clark? So, do you remember when we did the Murphy's Law podcast?
19:42 Speaker 03 How could I forget?
19:43 Josh Clark? Remember one of the books that he wrote was for your moments of inertia?
19:46 Speaker 03 Yeah.
19:47 Josh Clark? Yeah, I didn't realize it was a terrible, terrible engineering pun until I read this article.
19:52 Speaker 03 Yeah.
19:52 Josh Clark? Kind of made me hate John Paul Stapp a little bit.
19:54 Speaker 03 Nah, we love that guy.
19:56 Josh Clark? So Chuck, a moment of inertia is basically a way of describing a spinning object's resistance to changes in that rotation, basically being slowed down.
20:08 Speaker 03 Yeah.
20:09 Josh Clark? Right? And what smarter people than us have figured out is that if you increase the mass and distribute it slightly further away from the axis, you're going to increase its moment of inertia.
20:23 Speaker 03 Right.
20:24 Josh Clark? And that increases the amount of time it's just sleeping, right?
20:28 Speaker 03 Yeah, and like I said, I don't know this, but I just remember when I was a kid, they had those inverted yoyos, and I bet you anything that's why they did that.
20:35 Josh Clark? It's gotta be.
20:36 Speaker 03 Because they were wider at the outside and then curved in, which had to be less mass.
20:41 Josh Clark? Yeah.
20:42 Speaker 03 It was less stuff, less wood.
20:44 Josh Clark? Right.
20:45 Speaker 03 So I'm gonna go on record as saying that's why they did that.
20:47 Josh Clark? But I think you want more mass further away.
20:51 Speaker 03 Yeah.
20:52 Josh Clark? To increase its moment of inertia, right?
20:53 Speaker 03 Yeah, so it was, there was more mass on the outside.
20:56 Josh Clark? I got you, okay.
20:56 Speaker 03 Further away from the axis.
20:57 Josh Clark? Right.
20:58 Speaker 03 Yeah.
20:58 Josh Clark? So that allows things to sleep a lot longer, and that was, I guess you could say, one of the breakthroughs in yoyo design. I think in the 60s, they started adding mass to the outside and extending the axle a little bit. Bam, the yoyo's been improved. Think about this, right? 2500, maybe even longer than that, years ago.
21:21 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:21 Josh Clark? Somebody invented the yoyo, does not change until the Philippines in the early 20th century.
21:27 Speaker 03 Well, I thought it said it did change. We just don't know. Said there were changes in design over the years. No?
21:34 Josh Clark? Not that I took. I took it like there was one way, and then there was the Filipino way. And that was it.
21:41 Speaker 03 We got a correction to make then.
21:42 Josh Clark? And then the 20th century hits, and then there's all these great improvements on these designs.
21:47 Speaker 03 Indeed.
21:48 Josh Clark? One of the improvements Chuck was adding ball bearings, right? Yeah.
21:53 Speaker 03 So you and I don't think these are improvements, or at least I don't.
21:56 Josh Clark? Okay, that's absolutely true. That's a good caveat. I think that the Filipinos perfected the yo-yo.
22:03 Speaker 03 Let's just call them modifications.
22:04 Josh Clark? Okay.
22:05 Speaker 03 For sorry kids who don't know how to yo-yo.
22:07 Josh Clark? Rich kids.
22:08 Speaker 03 Yeah, that makes it easier, I think.
22:09 Josh Clark? Yeah.
22:11 Speaker 03 Isn't that the whole point of both of these things?
22:13 Josh Clark? Yeah, I guess.
22:14 Speaker 03 Because it makes it easier to sleep and...
22:15 Josh Clark? Yeah, and I guess they're like, "Well, if you're just enjoying sleeping and waking your yo-yo, then why make it tough?"
22:22 Speaker 03 If you want to have fun with your toy.
22:24 Josh Clark? Right.
22:26 Speaker 03 "Can't believe they made it easier for kids to have fun. How dare they?"
22:30 Josh Clark? So the ball bearing design, I think, is kind of clever. Basically, the, this modification takes the axle and splits it in two.
22:39 Speaker 03 Yeah.
22:40 Josh Clark? Into two races, which are basically little courses for ball bearings to spin around, right?
22:45 Speaker 03 Now, does that split the axle? These are just around the axle.
22:49 Josh Clark? So one is connected to the axle.
22:51 Speaker 03 Right.
22:52 Josh Clark? That's the inner race.
22:53 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
22:54 Josh Clark? One is connected to the string.
22:56 Speaker 03 Right.
22:56 Josh Clark? That's the outer race. And then in between the two are ball bearings.
22:58 Speaker 03 Right.
22:59 Josh Clark? Okay? They're not connected in any way, except maybe via the contact with the ball bearings.
23:06 Speaker 03 Right.
23:06 Josh Clark? So when you, when you release your yo-yo toward the ground and its linear and angular momentum really build up,
23:12 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
23:13 Josh Clark? when it hits, the inner race can tilt a little bit and connect with the outer race via the ball bearings. So they're, they're spinning.
23:22 Speaker 03 Right.
23:23 Josh Clark? Right? And then as they straighten out, the, they're, they're not connected anymore, so that the string no longer has any effect on whether the yo-yo spins or not, because it's just the inner race connected to the axle that's spinning. So your yo-yo can sleep far, far longer.
23:43 Speaker 03 Yeah, the outer race spins the inner race, which spins the axle.
23:45 Josh Clark? Right, it's like a transfer of angular momentum.
23:47 Speaker 03 Exactly.
23:48 Josh Clark? And then the string's just like, "You just let me know when you're done, and we'll wind back up."
23:52 Speaker 03 Well, it'll give a little tug. It'll do the same thing with that style, right?
23:55 Josh Clark? Right.
23:56 Speaker 03 Okay.
23:56 Josh Clark? Or you can just completely take yourself out of the equation altogether, except for a snap of the wrist. The initial release is all you need to do with what's called the yo-yo with the brain.
24:08 Speaker 03 These are really... Fake yoyos.
24:11 Josh Clark? Yeah.
24:11 Speaker 03 I want to get one, though. It's kind of cool.
24:12 Josh Clark? If you could be in a vegetative state and do this yoyo.
24:15 Speaker 03 Yeah, this was in the 90s. A company called Omega released these. And they called it the yoyo with a brain, when in fact, they should have called it the yoyo with a clutch. And the deal here is, you've got these two clutch arms.
24:31 Speaker 03 Weighted ball on one side, and it's not attached on the other side, and they're spring-loaded. The spindle is not attached to the axle, but the clutch arms are attached to the spindle. So when you throw this thing down, it's going to spin slower at first, and the clutch is engaged. As it gets faster, all of a sudden, it's enough inertia to pop the clutch, essentially, against the edges, and it releases the spindle,
24:59 Speaker 03 which makes the whole thing spin faster
25:01 Josh Clark? Right.
25:02 Speaker 03 on the axis.
25:03 Josh Clark? Right, the centrifugal force pushes down the weight, which pushes down the arm onto the spring, which releases the two, which allows it to spin.
25:12 Speaker 03 And it only spins for a certain amount of time. It's not like the kind that you tug back up. It'll spin till it slows down, and then the clutch locks back down, and boom, it shoots back up.
25:22 Josh Clark? Right back up.
25:22 Speaker 03 I want to, I want to, I wish we had one of those. I want to see what it's like.
25:26 Josh Clark? So basically, the big, the two modifications are based on separating the string from the axle.
25:31 Speaker 03 Yeah.
25:32 Josh Clark? By, by creating two different kinds of, I guess, axles or spindles or whatever.
25:37 Speaker 03 Which are really just sort of taking the Philippine, Filipino design a step further, because although it made contact with the axle, it wasn't, quote, "connected" to the axle.
25:47 Josh Clark? Yeah.
25:48 Speaker 03 Or I guess it was, but it wasn't tight.
25:49 Josh Clark? Right. And a guy named Michael Caffrey is the one who came up with the yoyo with the brain. And Omega started selling them in 1990, but he came up with it in 1980. Two years after a man named Tom Kuhn created the No Jive 3-in-1 yoyo, that you could take apart and replace the axle and do all sorts of modifications with.
26:09 Speaker 03 Oh, really?
26:10 Josh Clark? Big, big time for changes in yoyo design.
26:13 Speaker 03 So did he rip this dude off? Is that what you're saying?
26:15 Josh Clark? No.
26:16 Speaker 03 Oh, okay.
26:16 Josh Clark? No, I'm just saying, like, the two, these two big steps in, um,
26:20 Speaker 03 Oh, I thought-
26:20 Josh Clark? in yoyo design.
26:21 Speaker 03 The way you said "two years after" was sinister.
26:24 Josh Clark? Well, you're a very suspicious person.
26:25 Speaker 03 I am, when it comes to yoyo design.
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29:10 Josh Clark? Chuck, that's pretty much the physics of yo-yos. Did you know that? We just explained how yo-yos work.
29:16 Speaker 03 You know, I looked online at videos and stuff to make it a little easier because this is a very visual thing. And they do have videos. But what I found out is that a lot of teachers, physics teachers, use yo-yos to describe these, whatever, four to six properties that we described.
29:34 Josh Clark? I have to tell you, I understand angular momentum far better now.
29:38 Speaker 03 I understand, although it went through the yo-yos, through the football, I understand the moment of inertia.
29:44 Josh Clark? Okay.
29:45 Speaker 03 Oh, wait. Was that moment of inertia?
29:47 Josh Clark? No, that's angular momentum.
29:49 Speaker 03 Angular momentum.
29:49 Josh Clark? Spinning on an axis?
29:51 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah.
29:51 Josh Clark? Oh, you were talking about the gyroscopic stability.
29:53 Speaker 03 Yeah, there you go.
29:54 Josh Clark? That's what it was, yes.
29:54 Speaker 03 See, I get confused.
29:55 Josh Clark? I do too, Chuck. It's physics, man. Don't feel bad. You want to know a couple more pieces of yo-yo trivia?
30:01 Speaker 03 Yeah, let's hear it.
30:02 Josh Clark? In 1968, when Abbie Hoffman of the Chicago Seven
30:06 Speaker 03 Yeah.
30:07 Josh Clark? was indicted, or no, charged with contempt of Congress when he started doing the walk the dog during a House Un-American Activities Committee
30:20 Speaker 03 Oh, really?
30:21 Josh Clark? session that was investigating him.
30:23 Speaker 03 So he was like, I'm just so over this, I'm gonna yo-yo?
30:26 Josh Clark? Well, apparently, the way I read it is that he was trying to entertain, lighten everything up. Like, here, watch me yo-yo. And he was walking the dog and the...
30:34 Speaker 03 Who-act said, "No, not fun."
30:36 Josh Clark? So that's how yo-yos are connected to McCarthyism. If you ever take an S.F.I.S.K. quiz and that comes up.
30:43 Speaker 03 Plus, yo-yos were huge back then.
30:45 Josh Clark? Totally.
30:46 Speaker 03 That was like the heyday, I think, it was the 60s.
30:48 Josh Clark? Yeah. Nixon, have you seen Nixon try to yo-yo?
30:51 Speaker 03 No.
30:51 Josh Clark? Man, if you don't like Nixon, this'll just make you hate him even more. The night that they opened the Grand Ole Opry, and I think sometime in 1974. Um, what's the main guy? Like, the whole cast of Hee Haw is behind Nixon, and then the mate Roy Acuff.
31:06 Speaker 03 Yeah.
31:07 Josh Clark? He presents Nixon with a yo-yo and like, has to put it on Nixon's finger and Nixon looks like, "What's going on?", you know? And, um, and then he tries to do it once and it just kinda like flops down and makes like a sad trombone noise.
31:20 Speaker 03 Wow.
31:20 Josh Clark? And he just has this sullen like look on his face, like, "I don't like yo-yos."
31:25 Speaker 03 Right.
31:25 Josh Clark? He looks kinda like you did at the beginning of this episode.
31:29 Speaker 03 Yeah, me and Nick, Tricky Dick, who knew?
31:31 Josh Clark? Uh, and then they took a yo-yo in space, Chuck.
31:34 Speaker 03 Yeah, I saw that, and it still worked?
31:38 Josh Clark? It did work. They found that, like, letting it drop did nothing because they were testing it in microgravity, but if you throw it, um, it will, it will go slowly.
31:47 Speaker 03 But it'll still spin?
31:48 Josh Clark? You can do it slowly, but it will still spin. Um, and it moves kind of, um, just kinda gracefully along the, uh, string, like, in just midair horizontally. And, um, but it'll never sleep.
32:01 Speaker 03 Well, thank God NASA did that.
32:03 Josh Clark? Yeah, back in 1985.
32:05 Speaker 03 Those are all the videos you see, though. They do much more than that.
32:08 Josh Clark? That was back when NASA was like, "We have so much money, we don't know what to do with it."
32:12 Speaker 03 Right, exactly.
32:13 Josh Clark? "Let's launch something in, let's say, the Toys in Space Project."
32:16 Speaker 03 Right.
32:17 Josh Clark? And they did.
32:18 Speaker 03 Now, this was just for yo-yos. That was the only thing they did on that flight.
32:21 Josh Clark? Well, no, the Toys in Space Project encompassed, uh, or encompassed, uh, sixty shuttle missions. One for each toy that they tested out.
32:29 Speaker 03 Wow.
32:30 Josh Clark? Jax was one of the best ones.
32:31 Speaker 03 I bet. The bolo paddle?
32:33 Josh Clark? Yeah. So that's, uh, that's yo-yos. Frankly, I'm pretty happy with this one.
32:37 Speaker 03 I thought you were gonna lead in with something on yo-yo ma, for some reason.
32:41 Josh Clark? No, man, try to look up yo-yos in the news and not get yo-yo ma.
32:45 Speaker 03 Jeez.
32:46 Josh Clark? Can't do it.
32:47 Speaker 03 Stupid cello genius.
32:48 Josh Clark? I searched, uh, yo-yo minus ma minus ni minus gaba to finally get some stuff on yo-yos.
32:57 Speaker 03 Oh, yo gaba gaba, sure.
32:58 Josh Clark? Yeah.
32:59 Speaker 03 Oh, what was the other one? Yo mama?
33:01 Josh Clark? Uh, neo.
33:03 Speaker 03 Yo MTV Raps.
33:04 Josh Clark? That came up too.
33:05 Speaker 03 Did it?
33:06 Josh Clark? Yeah, I stopped searching before I minused MTV too.
33:10 Speaker 03 I didn't know you could minus.
33:11 Josh Clark? I was in the ju- yeah. And it'll, it'll root out all the search, all this, all the results that have that in it.
33:17 Speaker 03 So you just put the minus sign?
33:19 Josh Clark? Minus and then the next letter, no space.
33:21 Speaker 03 Had no idea.
33:22 Josh Clark? And you can do a bunch of different ones. No commas, no nothing, just like minus Gabba, minus Yo.
33:27 Speaker 03 Really?
33:27 Josh Clark? Minus Ma, minus Ni.
33:29 Speaker 03 You've literally just improved my, uh, life.
33:33 Josh Clark? Well, good.
33:33 Speaker 03 Or, or my research.
33:35 Josh Clark? For like the eighth time today.
33:36 Speaker 03 Yeah.
33:37 Josh Clark? Alright, well, that's it.
33:38 Speaker 03 Alright.
33:39 Josh Clark? Yo-yos.
33:40 Speaker 03 Yo.
33:40 Josh Clark? I was in a jewelry store once and Neo came in. Seemed nice.
33:44 Speaker 03 Who's Neo?
33:45 Josh Clark? He's this rapper, he's from Atlanta.
33:47 Speaker 03 Oh, I thought you were talking about The Matrix.
33:50 Josh Clark? No, that's a-
33:50 Speaker 03 I was like, his real name's Keanu Reeves.
33:51 Josh Clark? That's Neo, this is N-Y-O.
33:54 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah, I've heard of him.
33:56 Josh Clark? Yeah, him. Well, if you want to learn more about yo-yos, including some really top-notch illustrations, this is one of those ones that you will see why we have staff illustrators here at HowStuffWorks.com. In color, no, I saw. You want to type in yo-yo at the, in the handy search bar at HowStuffWorks.com, that'll bring up that really cool article. Um, and I said handy search bar, so now it's time for Chuck to shine with another edition of Listener Mail.
34:26 Speaker 03 Uh, Josh, this is, uh, one of our oldest, and not by age, but one of our most loyal fans, Anna Spies. She has a band and they put together, uh, well, let me just read it. This is coming out shortly after Christmas and she said it was still great to read this. "Hi guys and Jerry, uh, since we're firmly in the festive, greedy little grip of the holiday season, I was wondering if you could give a shout out to a project I'm involved in, or my band is at least. It's a charity album to raise funds for the continued fallout from the Japanese earthquake and nuclear disaster. In the light of everything that's happened since, I know it's been put on the back burner of most people's charitable contributions, which is why we were thrilled and honored to do our part to re-raise awareness."
35:12 Speaker 03 In this compilation approached us to contribute a track. So, you know, she's right. You hear about these tragedies that happen and then six months later, you kind of forget about it.
35:20 Josh Clark? It's the curse of the news cycle.
35:23 Speaker 03 Exactly. But luckily, there's a lot of people that, uh, my friend Dave is one of them that's still working like on the tsunami from five or six years ago.
35:31 Josh Clark? Oh, that's great.
35:32 Speaker 03 So continued help is always needed. Uh, there's a CD that's going to be out in mid-December. Uh, so by this, by the time this comes out, it'll already be out. Uh, you can stream the entire album, which is 37 tracks by 37 artists on the website, morehopeforjapan.com. And her band, New Century Classics, wrote and recorded a brand-new song just for this compilation, and she's quite proud of it. And I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but I'm gonna. And she says there's a lot of far better-known artists on there. Uh, and anyone who likes instrumental music, post-rock, ambient, and basically pretty melodic guitar-based tunes should dig it. So check it out. That's Anna's, uh, Anna's band, New Century Classics.
36:17 Josh Clark? Cool.
36:17 Speaker 03 Morehopeforjapan.com.
36:19 Josh Clark? Very cool. Thanks a lot, Anna. Appreciate that. Thanks for letting us know. Thanks for doing what you do.
36:24 Speaker 03 And thanks for listening for like years. She's been around forever.
36:27 Josh Clark? Yeah, yeah. I guess if you're working on something that you feel like everybody's forgotten and shouldn't have, let us know and we'll try to help you re-raise awareness, too.
36:35 Speaker 03 Yeah.
36:35 Josh Clark? Yeah. Send us a tweet to SYSKpodcast, or you can shoot us a Facebook something, uh, facebook.com/stuffyoushouldknow. And as always, you can get really personal and send us an email, a real live email, to [email protected] .
37:00 Speaker 07 For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our homepage. The HowStuffWorks iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.
37:16 Josh Clark? Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota Fordability, and it starts with a great deal on an off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's longest-lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures, and style in between. And they're built on a reputation for quality and reliability, which is why Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.
37:47 Speaker 02 She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.
38:00 Speaker 03 Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or hardened circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair.
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