How to make the Classic Spinning Button (and how it's perfect for explaining all 3 of Newton's Laws of Motion.)
I first heard from Mark Schilke when he sent pictures and video of a of his amazing water rocket launcher variation that shoots 5 rockets off at once!
Mark and his daughter Lelia collaborated on teaching her classmates how to make the folk toy, the spinning button (aka buzz saw). And I've never seen a clearer, succinct way to explain Sir Issac Newton's famous 3 laws of motion. Here is the explanation of the three laws of motion and instructions to how to make the button spinner.
Mark also sent these related links:
Here is a website showing some noise-making versions of the basic string spinner.
Back when Lelia was in kindergarten, we made a couple of big-ish (8" square) spinners out of corrugated cardboard that were similar to #222. More recently, we had a modern plastic version of #242.(Slater's note: You can find #222 and #242 on this page)
See also these websites:
- Whirlpool Humming Spinner
- Whirligig
- The video on this website has some of the action drift out of the frame, but it gets the main points across:
And of course, one can get as elaborate as one wants with the making of this toy:
Finally, this with the comment, "What were the redneck's last words? 'Hey, hold my beer and watch this!"