Plastic Spoon Rattleback

A rattleback is a mysterious spinning toy that can spontaneously change its direction of spin. This example of one is made from the bowl of a cheap plastic spoon, cut in half (thanks, Geoff!). Without the paperclips, it has a single preferred spin direction: if started spinning in the other direction, it will wobble and then start spinning in the preferred direction.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• rattleback
• plastic spoon
• wobblestone
• physics

[cotangentlift]

cool!