02x04 - Spinning

[bunniefuu]

Today on DFTV, three dudes go crazy

in the half pipe. Welcome to the wide

world of free ride skiing.

Kid spinners with their yo-yos to sleep.

And an expert tracks a hurricane. I

love weather.

Major funding for Dragonfly TV is

provided by the Best Buy Children's

Foundation. We're excited to see kids

like you exploring the world of science

and technology, because what you're

learning is going to change the way we

live. Best by the future looks fun.

And by the National Science Foundation,

supporting education and research in

science, mathematics and technology.

The National Science Foundation.

America's investment in the future.

This is DFTV. I'm Mariko. And I'm

Michael. Okay, off the top of your head,

name five things that spin.

Time's up. Get any of these, CDs,

wheels, Frisbees,

and maple tree seeds.

There are a ton of things that spin. Like

yo-yos, for example. Mina, John, and

Kevin are doing stunts with different

lengths of strength. First, we're heading

off to Aspen, Colorado, where John,

Andrew, and Zach are scoping out their

spins on free-ride skis. Dude.

Dude?Dude, let's rip. Buckle

up. That's in your seat belt. Here we go.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

What's up, guys?Welcome to the wide world

of free ride skiing! Free ride skis are

the coolest. With both ends curved up,

you can do some crazy trips. When we're

not in school, we're here on the slopes.

Or in the park.

But most of the time, we're here in the

pipe.

Pipe is short for halfpipe, where we do

tricks. See?It looks like a long pipe cut

in half. And in the pipe, it's all about

getting air. Right on. Don't forget about

the rotations.

Mister, you got a lot of explaining to

do. Before we hit the pipe, we hit the

gym.

We practice all our spins on the tr*mp.



is a full turn, and 540 degrees is one

and a half times around. It's funny,

we're all good with our 540s. But 360s

are kind of tricky because you're landing

backwards. We figured that to get our



have to try out different ways to control

our spins. So we decided to do a bunch of

tests in the pipe. We'll do 360s with

different arm positions to see how they

affect your rotation.

Before we get started, let's review the

basics of riding in the halfpipe. So you

drop in from one side, head down, and

back up. And before you hit the vertical

part of the wall, you stand straight up

to help launch yourself higher into the

air. If you do nothing but stand up,

you'll come right back down the way you

went up. To start a turn, you have to

do things a little differently before

you're in the air. When you come to the

lip, you extend one arm across towards

the other shoulder.

We'll do our 360 with three different arm

positions. First, we'll spin with both

arms out to the side, helicopter stop.

Next, we'll do a spin with our arms in.

For the third test, we'll spin with a

half heli-safety grab.

We'll score our jumps on a scale of one

to 10. And we use this camera to show how

we land. Enough of the

basics. It's time for the test. Let's

rip.

Oh yeah, the skin's burning.

Three. It was really nice, but

with the end, he fell, and it kind of

ruined the trick.

I gave him a 5.5, 'cause it was an

average jump.

Whoa. On my

second and third hits, I lost my speed.

And it really slowed down my 360.

I don't like the whole arms in deal. I

think it screwed you up a little bit, and

you didn't pull the straight down. Yeah.

How about no more arms in?He's the man! I

think it's, like, hard to... Throw

your spans with your arms and in the

pipe. It's like totally different than

any other jump you would do in the

terrain part. Yeah, definitely.

I'd say a solid 7.5. Lip it

up, Shum's good, I'm Luke Ann.

Zach!I think the Lou

Kang, even though it was difficult,

it really kept your balance, because

you're grabbing your ski, and it was

really hard to tilt over in the air.

Yeah.

Yes,That was sick.



and he stuck it clean.



that's it. Which jump did you think works

the best?I don't know, man, but do we

have any food or something?I can't go

this long without food. Don't go away.

We'll be right back after lunch with our

results. Dude, where's

that?I don't know, dude. He's going to

miss lunch. Whoa! What's

that?The dudes will be back with the

scoop on their 360s, plus a

ski ramp from John. Hey, Michael, check

this out. These are called twin tip skis,

and unlike regular skis, they curve both

in the back and the front. Oh, so that

way free ride skiers can do stunts in the

half pipe without the back of their skis

digging in the snow. Exactly. Sweet.

Design innovations have brought us new

sports like windsurfing and my favorite

snowboarding. In fact, Justin and Patrick

on our Wheels show turned a regular

scooter into a ski scooter. So if you're

designing any radical equipment, make

sure you find out about it. We'll tell

you how later on.

again Spin me round again

Spin me round again

Spin me

round again

Okay, so lots of things spin.

But how many of those can send a message

at the same time?

A wish brings us to today's riddle. How

can you send a message on a spinning disk?

Take a guess, we'll be back with theclue.

To mix things up, you'll need a piece of

aluminum foil, food coloring, a rubber

band, a pencil, a jar filled with

hot water, and a smaller jar filled with

cold water with an ice cube. Pull the ice

cube out of the jar and set aside.

Now, add a few drops of food coloring.

Put the aluminum foil over the jar

and hold it in place with the rubberband.

Poke a hole in the center and flip the

little jar over the big one. Tap

it in place. The cold water in the

little jar is more dense than the warm

water in the big jar. Watch the cold

water sink to the bottom of the big jar.

As the cold water warms up, it will

slowly spread throughout the jar. How

long will it take for the whole jar to be

colored red?Don't just sit there.

Get to it. Get to it Get to

it Get to it Get to it

Yo, I'm Kevin. Hey,

yo, I'm Nina.

yo-yo, yo, I'm Chong.

And the yo-yo. Move it up.

The thing about the yo-yo

is that the spin is in the throw.

But you do tricks like walk the dog.

Or the Eiffel Tower. Bonjour.

Or the classic around the world.

He always has to sleep. Sleeping.

Which means it keeps spinning when it

reaches the end of the string.

Give this string a jerk. And the yo-yo

comes right back to your hand. If you

just open your hand and drop the yo-yo,

gravity will take it down, but it won't

sleep very long.

You have to add the force of the throw to

get it to spin fast enough for it to

sleep, and it keeps sleeping until

friction slows the yo-yo down and it

dies. But what

if you had a longer string?

And what if the string was shorter?

So we want to know, how does the length

of the yo-yo string affect its sleeping

time?

I think that the longer string will sleep

longer because the yo-yo has more time to

build up more spin. Nah, the one with the

shorter string, it'll have more energy

for my throw. Well, I don't think it

makes any difference. The

tester question. We are each going to use

one yo-yo and three lengths of string.

The length of the yo-yo string should be

from your belly button to just above the

floor. We measure and cut the string at

the recommended length, and then cut one



longer.

We'll time the sweep from the beginning

until it stops spinning. Each of us will

sweep the yo-yo three times, and then

switch strings until we've done all three

string lengths. And then we'll compare

the average sleeping times. No hope of

escape from the test of science. Spinning

round and round and round Spinning round

and round

Spinning round

and round Long string is out at 30

seconds.

Medium string is done in 35 seconds.

Yo.

This time I got 27 seconds.

I got 44 seconds that time. But I think

you threw it harder that time. That's got

to affect the sleeping time. But we're

not machines. We can't fold the same each

time. Let's try our best to keep the

throws the same. Okay, let's

go. Ready?Switch. Switch.

Yo.

Short string is out at



Short string is out at 28 seconds.

Wow, we're all out of 30 seconds.

Can you be saved, Doctor?

We figured out our averages for each

length of string and made a chart with

our results. What'd you get for the first

one?34. I got 29 seconds for the first

one. I got 32. Okay, medium strengths. I

got 28. I got 29. Short strength.

I got 26. I had 33.

Let's check out our results. The longest

string slept longer than the other two

strings. Yeah, the longest string

definitely had the best sleeping time.

And the medium string came next. The

shortest string had the shortest sleeping

time.

So why does a yo-yo sleep longer on the

longer string?Probably because the yo-yo

has more time to unwind on a longer

string. I could never use a string that

long. I'd get tangled up. I saw the guy

that broke the world record for sleeping

time. He used a couple of different

string lengths. No way. How?He threw it

down and walked it up with his hands so

it didn't spin up, then watched it for 13

minutes and 35 seconds. Let's go for the

record, man. Kick it.

So, what kind of yo-yo gets you to school

in the morning?If any of you guys can

answer that, you must know a lot about

car engines. OK, look at this. It's

called a flywheel, and it works pretty

much the same way a yo-yo does. This one

came right out of a car engine, which

explains why it's so heavy and really

dirty. Yeah, well, it's supposed to be

heavy because like a yo-yo, once it gets

going, it keeps going. That helps the

engine run smoothly. And now a word from

some kids who did spinning of their own.

We tested fins to see which ones made us

really dizzy. You can be on DFTV

too. Just write in with your science

ideas. Here's how. Surf

on over to the Dragonfly TV website. It's

at PBS online at pbskids.org.

Or you can write us at Dragonfly TV,





How heavy is the world's largest

yo-yo?45

pounds, 256 pounds,





And now, back to our riddle. Anna and

Spencer are trying to get a spinning disc

to send a message.

Why don't we try attaching some kind of

message to the underside and see if we

can read it while it spins?

I couldn't read your message at all. Me

neither. The message gets blurred as soon

as it starts to spin. Why don't we try

something different?What about a code?

Maybe we can try dots and dashes. Okay.

What are you doing?That seemed to work

better, but we still have to write out a

code. But if we do, only you and I would

know what it means.

All right, so the printed letters blur on

the spinning disk. But remember that what

doesn't work isn't always a dead end. It

may be pointing us right to the answer.

Keep guessing. The answer's on its way.

What was the original Frisbee made from?

Pie tin, hubcap, trash

can lid.

Pie tin.

Let's go! Hi,

I'm Jason Dunyan. I'm a meteorologist,

which means I study the weather. One of

the great things that I do is study

hurricanes. And sometimes I work here at

the National Hurricane Center in Miami,

Florida. I love

weather. So what is a hurricane?Well,

basically, it's a large storm with air

rushing in in the low levels and rushing

out in the upper levels. It's a little

bit like a tornado, though it's different

in some ways. Tornadoes, they are a lot

smaller, maybe up to a mile across. And

they can spin in all sorts of different

directions-- clockwise, counterclockwise.

Hurricanes spin only counterclockwise

because of the Earth's rotation. It's

their size that gives them their spin.

And that's what really separates

tornadoes from hurricanes.

I always loved storms. When I was a kid,

I used to pretend I was the Weather

Service guy, giving his forecast for how

many inches of snow would fall. If there

was a hurricane, I would get all excited.

Our job as scientists is to research what

makes these storms tick and try to

understand more about what's going on

with them. Here we are on the

rooftop of the National Hurricane Center,

and as you can see, there's tons of

satellite dishes and weather measuring

devices. It's really all happening right

up here. And of course, if all else

fails, you can always go with the low

tech. Old standby.

We interrupt this program to bring you a

special bulletin. So this is the Grand

Central Station of hurricane forecasting.

When there's a hurricane out there, this

is where the whole world is watching.

This is where the director will sit and

make his forecast and tell everybody

where this storm's going to go. Now,

right now it's really quiet here, but

when there's a storm out there, this

place is hopping. You know something

scratchy?You've got a problem. One of the

cool parts of my job is I get to get on a

plane and fly right into the eye of the

storm on a hurricane hunter plane. And we

have three different kinds of planes.

They have different names like Miss

Piggy, Gonzo, Kermit. And if you want to

talk about a bumpy ride, that's a flight

you'll never forget.

One of the things we're doing while we're

flying is dropping these GPS dropsondes

right out of the plane. And you can see

the green parachute right here. They fall

all the way down to the ocean surface and

send us back all sorts of information,

like pressure, temperature, winds,

humidity.

Mother Nature's definitely in charge, and

if you ever think otherwise, you're in

for a rude awakening, because there's a

lot we don't know about how these storms

move and and how strong they're going to

get.

So which way do you think a hurricane

spins?Umm Either way.

Wait, is this a trick question?Well, kind

of. See, in the northern hemisphere, a

hurricane spins counterclockwise, but in

the southern hemisphere, where it's

called a typhoon, right, it

spins clockwise. Oh, kind of like water

down a drain. Don't confuse people,

please. Fine. We're heading back for some

more spins. Those free ride skiers in

their 360s.

We wanted to know which arm position

would help us land our 360s, so we

tested three different ones in the

halfpipe and recorded our scores.

One, two, one, two, three.

I am the huckster. Spin back. I will bust

every move. I can monster. Flipping and

spinning, you know. I'll be when you step

back. I like your style. OK,

so we had a great day of riding in the

halfpipe, and we came out with some pretty

results and this is what we found now.

Okay, the arms in position is either down

by your side or some people like hug

themselves to get it in. In our arms

in position, we had a lot of falls.

With the arms in position, it's creating

a lot faster rotation. You're spinning

fast and you don't know where you are.

Before you know it coming down and you

just see it and you know you've over

rotated, then there's nothing to do about

it. It takes a few wipeouts to get a few

good ones. You're just like, uh

So sometimes when we're in the gym, we

like to hang on the rings and we hold on

to these rings that are up suspended on

ropes with our hands. And we'll start out

with our legs really wide like that. And

we start going really, really, really

slow. And then as soon as we pull them

in, we start whipping around really fast

like this. So that's basically the.

equivalent of our arms.

Half heli is the, it's called the

Lou Kang grab.

Notice the upper body position where half

of it's in and the other half's out, so

it's sort of leveling out your rotation.

Most of us didn't

land it that well because it sort of

threw us off balance. I beg your pardon.

He started out good with the

with the half heli, but I guess he missed

it and then that arm threw him

off. And as he went down, he skidded

out. Oh, the half heli is

definitely one more thing to think about.

And it's going to change your rotation a

lot too, because this shoulder then

starts to drop and this arm's trying to

counterbalance and a bunch of variables

get in that you don't really want. What

do you think, Zach?Yeah.

Our third position we did was arms out,

Kelly.

Look at how stretched out they are. I've

got them fully extended. That's the full

wingspan right there. You see the

body position. The arms are extended and

I'm looking straight at where I'm going

to land. And then here they just come

together and I'm still looking at my

landing, never looking away from it. And

then here I just ride away from it clean.

Dude, yeah. The heli got the

highest scores because we all felt like

we had a lot of stability. Like you could

just you had so much time when you're

floating around to find the landing, look

at it for a second, be like, oh, that's

where I want to go. All these scores are

higher than any of these because it was

just easier to land and we didn't take

any points off. Look at these. It just

blows these right out of the water.

Moving at the speed of light. Do you

think we figured out a way to make our



definitely. The arms open, man, all the

way. It's so sweet. It's just slowing you

down and making everything a lot more

comfortable and smooth. So what's next?

Bio 12CC Blue Tang. Oh, yeah.

What if you hugged a beef spin 1080 off

the money breeder, dog?

OK, for all of us who aren't going to be

in a half-life anytime soon, there's

another way to see how your arm position

can affect a spin. Ready?I'll get you

going on a good clip. OK.

Now watch what happens as she puts her

arms in.

It helps if you have something heavy like

these three pound weights. Okay, let's

just answer today's riddle before I lose

my lunch.

If sending a message is your goal, this

really is the ultimate flying disc.

Lights on the edge form letters, which

you can only read when the disc is

spinning. How does it

work?The human eye remembers an image for

a fraction of a second after seeing the

image. The lights blink out letters and

pieces. Spinning the disk moves the

pieces into place. Your eye remembers

each piece just long enough for the brain

to put them all together.

So our eyes hold on to an image for a

beat, which is exactly what your eyes are

doing right now. As I speak, my image in

your TV is flashing on and off 30 times a

second, but you see me as uninterrupted

action. Try this. Pop in some action

footage and then push frame advance on

your remote. You can see how long

something like a jump is. 1,





at 30 frames a second, that's exactly 1/3

of a second. You guys can try it with

cartoons or even commercials. But

remember, if you do any video

experimenting, we want to hear all about

it. Write and tell us. To find out more

about Dragonfly TV, head to PBS Online at

pbskids.org, or write us at

Dragonfly TV, 172 East 4th Street, St.

Paul, Minnesota, 55101.

See what's coming up this season on

Dragonfly TV. I think we may have lost

our first rocket. I've wanted to race

cars since I could walk.

And we're swimming with the manatees.

Coming up soon on Dragonfly TV.

So I guess we're winding down. But be

sure to come back again. Investigations

across the nation. Dragonfly TV. Major

funding for Dragonfly TV is provided by

the Best Buy Children's Foundation. We're

excited to see kids like you exploring

the world of science and technology,

because what you're learning is going to

change the way we live. Best Buy, the

future looks fun.

And by the National Science Foundation.

Supporting education and research in

science, mathematics and technology.

The National Science Foundation.

America's investment in the future.

Spin me around. I'm dizzy.

This is a fun experiment.

Free writing and flying

until we haveto make it end I

can't wait till next time

Until you spin me round again

Spin me round again

Spin me round again

Spin me round again

PBS Kids