Toy inspires new spin on Earth's magnetic field
How can a spinning toy called a
rattleback help us understand the Earth's magnetic field?
For those of us below a certain age, a rattleback is a toy that you can spin in one direction but not the other. If you try to make it spin in the "wrong" direction, it spontaneously rattles up and down, and then starts spinning in the other way.
It doesn't sound terribly complex, but mathematicians and physicists have been struggling for centuries trying to work out why rattlebacks behave like this.
Watch the video to see it all explained:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment