Modern day yoyos work much different than the old fashioned dollar store yoyos that most people are used to. They are shaped differently, they spin longer, and they are made out of much higher quality materials. Today I will give you an in-depth run-over on how modern day yoyos spin for such a long time.
Modern day yoyos spin for a long time because they have a steel ball bearing inside of the middle of the yoyo.
(Shutter)
The circular piece of metal on the top of the yoyo is the bearing. Many of you might be familiar with what a bearing is because skateboards also use ball bearings to make their tires spin.
(Dissected)
Here is a picture of a dissected ball bearing. To put it as simply as possible “The inner ring of the bearing is stationary while the outer ring rotates around the inner ring.” (NMB Tech. Corp.) The steel balls greatly reduce the friction and allow the bearing to spin for a very long time. The cage keeps the steel balls in place so that they don’t fall out of the bearing.
(Bearing)
Some bearings also have shields, “Bearing shields protect the yoyo from dirt or sand.” (Divedi) Bearing shields are not completely necessary but if you happen to drop your bearing in sand or dirt, you will have a lot of trouble getting it spinning like it used to spin before you dropped it. Now that you know how bearings work, you might be wondering: What does a bearing have anything to do with a spinning yoyo? Well first of all, the yoyo string is wrapped around the bearing like so:
(Open)
Most yoyo strings are made out of polyester or nylon that are twisted together. At the end of each yoyo string there is a little loop,”you want to then wrap the loop at the end of the string around the bearing of the yoyo.” (Leumas) Then when you throw the yoyo down the outer ring stays stationary while the inner ring (which is connected to the actual yoyo) is spinning with the yoyo. A bearing doesn’t make a yoyo spin forever though. On average if you throw the yoyo pretty hard it can spin for up to 4 minutes. The world record for longest spin time for a yoyo was actually 30 minutes and 28 seconds with the C3yoyodesign BTH.
(BTH)
Not all yoyos can spin for this long though. This yoyo was made especially for this kind of thing. It also had a very good bearing that also helped it spin for so long. On top of that, the yoyo weighed 200+ grams (which is 4 times heavier than the average yoyo). With the technology of putting a ball bearing inside of a yoyo, yoyoers are now able to create and learn harder and more complex yoyo tricks without having to worry about needing to bring the yoyo back into your hand every 10 seconds or so. Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post and if you do enjoy these kinds of posts please don’t forget to subscribe to this page for updates!
Works Cited:
Shutter Yoyo. Digital image. Yoyoexpert. N.p., n.d. Web.
Dissected Bearing. Digital image. NMBTC. N.p., n.d. Web.
NMB Tech. Corp. “What Is a Ball Bearing?” NMBTC.com. N.p., 30 Sept. 2014. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
Divedi, Harikesh. Bearing Shields. Digital image. HKDivedi. N.p., n.d. Web.
Divedi, Harikesh. “BALL BEARING SEALS, SHIELDS AND SNAP RINGS.” ENGINEERING MADE EASY. N.p., 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
Open Yoyo. Digital image. Pocket Pros. N.p., n.d. Web.
LeumasYrrep. “How To Make Yo-Yo String.” Instructables.com. N.p., 29 June 2007. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
BTH Yoyo. Digital image. Yoyoexpert. N.p., n.d. Web.
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