It isn’t too long when the world got hit by the toy of the season commonly known as hand-spinner or a fidget spinner. It was marketed as a problem solver for those who are suffering from hyperactivity disorder or anxiety.
Fidget Spinner
A fidget spinner is a small device bearing a hole that the user can spin in between his fingers. It creates a momentum as it goes around and round that stimulates a pleasing experience for the user that is what is said in its reviews. And as for how it can be used for certain other purposes, you will find tons of DIY videos on YouTube and Instagram.
The manufacturers of fidget spinners claimed that the sensation created by it was able to cause the user’s mind to relax and release tension providing him with an ultimate experience of pleasure. They also claimed that a fidget spinner could bring out the genius lying underneath in the user. Regarding these claims of the manufacturers, the scientists decided to do an in-depth study of these assertions but because there are no previous studies regarding such movements of toys or why they attract certain attention, scientists declared the claims by manufacturers as vague.
So, with all the buzz going around regarding this one of a kind toy, the humming finally came to the International Space Station and they decided to check its rotation in microgravity aka space. Since fidget spinner is on the verge of losing its charm, this stunt pulled by the ISS astronauts may be able to bring all the fuss back about it.
Astronauts of NASA play with fidget spinner
Randy Bersnik, an astronaut of NASA recently posted a video on YouTube of him and a few friends playing around with fidget spinner in SPACE. The astronaut is currently on an expedition 52/53 abroad when he posted this video.
In the video, you will see the team performing different tricks with NASA approved fidget spinner and they play with it while floating in the various direction in microgravity. The video features Mark T. VandeHei, Joseph Acaba, Randy Bresnik, and Paolo Nespoli, all well-known trained astronauts of NASA. The engaging thing about this video is that you will not only see fidget spinner spinning but the players spinning around with it or floating we’d rather say. For an instance, Mark T. VandeHei holds the fidget spinner while he himself does full pivots along a flat plane and then Joe Acaba does bewildering somersaults while the fidget spinner rotates in his grasp.
Watching the video is pleasing and nauseating, both at the same time but the best part is watching the fidget spinner freely rotate and float in microgravity. Even though if you’re not feeling well and have been sick for a while or sad for any matter, this video is definitely going to pump you up.
And as a food for thought, the video does respond to the fact that microgravity makes the fidget spinner respond in a thoroughly different way. We cannot achieve the things down here on the ground as compared to what can be achieved up in the sky.
Commonly, you clutch the inside piece of the spinner as you give it a spin, and the entire thing turns so easily as a result of the modest balls encased in two rings called ‘races’. It also depends on the model that you are using, there are likewise metal rollers on the prongs of the spinner in some models and you can get quite a few in the market or online.
A physicist Paul Doherty from the Exploratorium in San Francisco explained to Live Science earlier this year that in a fidget spinner, you hold the center of one ball bearing, the outer bearing race spins around, and the outer parts of the fidget spin with the outer bearing race. It all depends on the smoothness of the central bearing race, the smoother it is, the longer fidget spinner’s spin is going to last. But the fun fact about spinning it in the space is that the center part does not stay still.
Nasa has explained in the video description about the spin of the fidget spinner as quoted “Allowing the fidget spinner to float reduces the bearing friction by permitting the rate of the central ring and outer spinner to equalize, and the whole thing spins as a unit,”
And in case you’ve noticed closely when Bresnik lets go of the fidget spinner, the logo of NASA stays still for a moment or two but then starts rotating on its own as the rest of the device rotates along with it.
Since there is not much friction in space, you might be assuming that the fidget spinner will keep on spinning but that is not the case here, the central bearing eventually starts to slow down depicting that there is some friction there on a basic level.
So, this does mean that there is a chance of fidget spinners coming back to life since they emerged this spring, got tremendous recognition but then the buzz died down. This one experiment of using a fidget spinner in space might bring it back to life. You can watch the video on YouTube regarding how a fidget spinner reacts in space along with tons of others. One of the things that were claimed by many that fidget spinner helps kids fight against the psychological disease of autism. Many schools banned the use spinners during school premises for obvious reasons but this new assessment might not be able to live the ban up but it is definitely going to give the fidget spinner another pump.
In that hilarious footage of astronauts playing around with fidget spinners, you will also see how they take turns to spin the fidget and how awesome it looks. A fidget spinner will not spin forever in a space station but it will react differently due to obvious reasons and one of them being is the existence of microgravity.
