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Physics of the mechanical toy Gee-Haw Whammy Diddle

Gee-Haw Whammy Diddle is a seemingly simple mechanical toy consisting of a wooden stick and a second stick that is made up of a series of notches with a propeller at its end. When the wooden stick is pulled over the notches, the propeller starts to rotate. Despite its simplicity, physical principles...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Marek, Martin, Badin, Matej, Plesch, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5829150/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29487325
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22079-1
Descripción
Sumario:Gee-Haw Whammy Diddle is a seemingly simple mechanical toy consisting of a wooden stick and a second stick that is made up of a series of notches with a propeller at its end. When the wooden stick is pulled over the notches, the propeller starts to rotate. Despite its simplicity, physical principles governing the motion of the stick and the propeller are rather complicated and interesting. Here we provide a thorough analysis of the system and parameters influencing the motion. We show that contrary to the results published on this topic so far, neither elliptic motion of the stick nor frequency synchronization is needed for starting a stable motion of the propeller.