Pedro Flores, a young man from the Philippines, moved to the United States in the 1920's and worked as a bellhop at a Santa Monica hotel. In the Philippines, carving and playing with wooden yo-yos was a common pastime. Pedro found that playing with his yo-yo during lunch break, drew a crowd. He started a company and called it the Flores Yo-Yo Company. Flores never claimed to have invented the yo-yo. He always pointed out its ancient Philippine lineage.
An entrepreneur named Donald F. Duncan first came across the yo-yo on a business trip to California. A year later, in 1929, he returned and bought the company from Flores, gaining not only a unique toy, but also the magic name "yo-yo." Duncan soon introduced the looped string, which allows the yo-yo to sleep, which is a necessity for advanced tricks.
The biggest yo-yo boom in history hit in 1962, following the innovative use of TV advertising.In 1964, Duncan's company had lots of luck in Wisconsin where they had to make 36,000 yo-yos an hour to keep up with the country-wide demand for yo-yos. Financial losses at the end of the boom forced the Duncan family out of business in 1965. The company who made Duncan's plastic models, Flambeau Products, bought the company and still owns it today.
Yo-yos are made from wood, plastic, and metal. There are many different sizes. They can be as small as a U.S. quarter or as large as a softball. There are three basic shapes. The first shape is called the Classic shape. It is the oldest and most widely known shape. The classic shape is also known as the Imperial and Traditional shape. This shape has a narrow string gap and body. A string gap is the place where the string is winded up. These features make it ideal for looping. With its narrow body and its quick response, it is the best yo-yo for beginners. Next is the Butterfly shape. It is the most popular yo-yo among the intermediate and advanced players. The Butterfly is also known as the Wing shape because it looks like a butterfly with its wings extended. One advantage this shape has over other yo-yos is the wide string gap. A wider gap makes it easier to land the yo-yo on the string. Many tricks require the landing of the yo-yo on the string multiple times. Advanced string tricks also require long sleep times and the wide string gap makes it possible to put large efficient bearings in the yo-yo giving it sleep times well over five minutes. The last shape is the Modified Shape. It is the cross between the butterfly and the classic shapes. This shape is sometimes called the Modern Shape. The rims are rounded for easier landing on the string and the rims are thicker which creates the weight needed for longer sleep times. At the same time, the body is slim like the classic shape so looping is easier.
There are also four axle types. One of them is the Fixed Axle. The axle and the body are attached and move together. They act as if they were one piece and in some yo-yos, they are. Most axles of this kind are made of wood, but some are made of metal. The Classic yo-yo shapes mostly use fixed wooden axles. The next axle type is called the Transaxle. This axle is made up of two cylinders. The inner one is fixed to a fixed axle. The outer cylinder spins around the inner cylinder. It gives the yo-yo a better sleep time. The Ball Bearing Axle is the same as a Transaxle. The only difference is the ball bearings between the two cylinders. It reduces thefriction allowing a longer sleep time, making the yo-yo less responsive, and better at string tricks. Transaxles sleep longer than Fixed axles and Ball bearing axles sleep longer than Transaxles. The last type of axle is the Clutch Transaxle. It is simply a clutch that opens up to allow the yo-yo to sleep when it is spinning at high speeds. As the yo-yo slows the clutch activates, stopping the Transaxle from spinning and returning the yo-yo to the hand. Sometimes this is a handy feature. It can save you from having a dead yo-yo. Other times you might want to control when the yo-yo returns because an early return can prevent the completion of a trick.
Yo-yos are advertised in many ways. There are yo-yo ads on the internet. Yo-yo ads are in the newspaper. TV commercials are used. Posters are in toy stores. Lastly, contests are a major advertising tool.People came to watch the masters but also bought the sponsor's yo-yos, usually Duncan.Over one million yo-yos are sold each year in the U.S.
When playing with a yo-yo, the drum of the yo-yo wants to stay right where it is. This happens because its mass also gives it inertia, the ability to resist any change in its motion or lack of motion. You need a force to make the drum move. The gravity on earth makes the drum roll down the string. To quicken its decent you could throw the yo-yo down. As the yo-yo starts to sleep, it keeps moving because the yo-yo has inertia for rotation. It continues to rotate during the climb back up using the energy it stored from the gravity on the way down.
An entrepreneur named Donald F. Duncan first came across the yo-yo on a business trip to California. A year later, in 1929, he returned and bought the company from Flores, gaining not only a unique toy, but also the magic name "yo-yo." Duncan soon introduced the looped string, which allows the yo-yo to sleep, which is a necessity for advanced tricks.
The biggest yo-yo boom in history hit in 1962, following the innovative use of TV advertising.In 1964, Duncan's company had lots of luck in Wisconsin where they had to make 36,000 yo-yos an hour to keep up with the country-wide demand for yo-yos. Financial losses at the end of the boom forced the Duncan family out of business in 1965. The company who made Duncan's plastic models, Flambeau Products, bought the company and still owns it today.
Yo-yos are made from wood, plastic, and metal. There are many different sizes. They can be as small as a U.S. quarter or as large as a softball. There are three basic shapes. The first shape is called the Classic shape. It is the oldest and most widely known shape. The classic shape is also known as the Imperial and Traditional shape. This shape has a narrow string gap and body. A string gap is the place where the string is winded up. These features make it ideal for looping. With its narrow body and its quick response, it is the best yo-yo for beginners. Next is the Butterfly shape. It is the most popular yo-yo among the intermediate and advanced players. The Butterfly is also known as the Wing shape because it looks like a butterfly with its wings extended. One advantage this shape has over other yo-yos is the wide string gap. A wider gap makes it easier to land the yo-yo on the string. Many tricks require the landing of the yo-yo on the string multiple times. Advanced string tricks also require long sleep times and the wide string gap makes it possible to put large efficient bearings in the yo-yo giving it sleep times well over five minutes. The last shape is the Modified Shape. It is the cross between the butterfly and the classic shapes. This shape is sometimes called the Modern Shape. The rims are rounded for easier landing on the string and the rims are thicker which creates the weight needed for longer sleep times. At the same time, the body is slim like the classic shape so looping is easier.
There are also four axle types. One of them is the Fixed Axle. The axle and the body are attached and move together. They act as if they were one piece and in some yo-yos, they are. Most axles of this kind are made of wood, but some are made of metal. The Classic yo-yo shapes mostly use fixed wooden axles. The next axle type is called the Transaxle. This axle is made up of two cylinders. The inner one is fixed to a fixed axle. The outer cylinder spins around the inner cylinder. It gives the yo-yo a better sleep time. The Ball Bearing Axle is the same as a Transaxle. The only difference is the ball bearings between the two cylinders. It reduces thefriction allowing a longer sleep time, making the yo-yo less responsive, and better at string tricks. Transaxles sleep longer than Fixed axles and Ball bearing axles sleep longer than Transaxles. The last type of axle is the Clutch Transaxle. It is simply a clutch that opens up to allow the yo-yo to sleep when it is spinning at high speeds. As the yo-yo slows the clutch activates, stopping the Transaxle from spinning and returning the yo-yo to the hand. Sometimes this is a handy feature. It can save you from having a dead yo-yo. Other times you might want to control when the yo-yo returns because an early return can prevent the completion of a trick.
Yo-yos are advertised in many ways. There are yo-yo ads on the internet. Yo-yo ads are in the newspaper. TV commercials are used. Posters are in toy stores. Lastly, contests are a major advertising tool.People came to watch the masters but also bought the sponsor's yo-yos, usually Duncan.Over one million yo-yos are sold each year in the U.S.
When playing with a yo-yo, the drum of the yo-yo wants to stay right where it is. This happens because its mass also gives it inertia, the ability to resist any change in its motion or lack of motion. You need a force to make the drum move. The gravity on earth makes the drum roll down the string. To quicken its decent you could throw the yo-yo down. As the yo-yo starts to sleep, it keeps moving because the yo-yo has inertia for rotation. It continues to rotate during the climb back up using the energy it stored from the gravity on the way down.
Science
The yo-yo has changed from where in the original yo-yo design, the string was secured to the axle, to where in the modern design, the string is only looped around the axle, allowing the yo-yo to “sleep.” In both designs, the yo-yoist winds up the string tightly around the axle.
Sitting in the yo-yoist’s palm, the yo-yo has two different forms of potential energy. It has the potential to fall to the ground and, because the string is wound around the yo-yo, it has the potential to spin as it falls. When the yo-yo is released, both forms of potential energy change to kinetic energy. The drum of the yo-yo falls straight to the ground. That builds a certain amount of momentum going down. As the string unwinds, it builds angular momentum which is momentum of rotation.
When the yo-yo reaches the end of the string, because it has a good deal of angular momentum, it will keep spinning. If the string is attached securely to the axle like the original design, the spinning axle grips the string and starts rewinding the yo-yo right after it reaches the end of the string. The yo-yoist needs to slightly tug on the string as the yo-yo climbs back up in order to make up for energy lost to gravity and/or friction.
In the modern yo-yo design less friction is created between the string and the axle because the string is looped around the axle not secured to it. When the drum is finished unwinding, it will not immediately come back up, rather it will sleep at the bottom. For the yo-yo to climb back up the string, the yo-yoist jerks lightly on the string which temporarily adds friction between the string and the axle so that the drum winds back up and then returns to the yo-yoist.
One thing yo-yo companies have tried to do to make a yo-yo sleep longer is to alter its moment of inertia. They do this by putting the weight of the yo-yo on the outer edge of the drum. Reducing friction with a ball bearing assembly is another thing they have done to make the yo-yo sleep longer. The ball bearing assembly separates the axle from the string.
Newton’s first law of motion says that an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless an external force is applied to it. When a yo-yo is spinning at the bottom, it stays spinning until the air and string cause enough friction to stop it.
No comments:
Post a Comment