|
Whirligig
A whirligig is an object that spins or whirls, or has at least one part that spins or whirls. It can also be a Pinwheel (toy), pinwheel, Top (toy), spinning top, buzzer, comic weathervane, gee-haw, spinner, whirlygig, whirlijig, whirlyjig, whirlybird, or simply a whirly. They are most commonly powered by the wind but can be hand-, friction- or motor-powered. They can be used as kinetic art, kinetic garden ornaments, and can be designed to transmit sound and vibration into the ground to repel burrowing rodents. Types Whirligigs can be divided into four categories: button, friction, twine, string, and wind-driven. Button whirligigs Button whirligigs, also known as button spinners and Buzzer (whirligig), buzzers, are the oldest known whirligigs. They require only a piece of clay or bone and a strip of hide. The ancient Greeks had their own version of this toy, called an ''iynx'', and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American cultures had another in 500 BC. Many a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iynx
In Greek mythology, Iynx () was an Arcadian nymph; a daughter of the god Pan and the nymph Echo. In popular myth, she used an enchantment to cast a spell on Zeus, which caused him to fall in love with Io. In consequence of this, Hera metamorphosed her into the bird called iynx ( Eurasian wryneck, ''Jynx torquilla''). She was the symbol of restless, passionate love. Mythology Iynx was an Arcadian nymph and the daughter of Pan and Echo, or Peitho. She was the creator of a magical love-charm known as the ''iynx''—a spinning wheel with a wryneck bird attached. Iynx used her enchantments to make Zeus fall in love with her or with the nymph Io. Hera was enraged and transformed her into a wryneck bird. According to another story, she was a daughter of Pierus, and as she and her sisters had presumed to enter into a musical contest with the Muses, she was changed into the bird iynx. This bird, the symbol of passionate and restless love, was given by Aphrodite to Jason, who, by t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Top (toy)
A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be spun on its vertical axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect. Once set in motion, a top will usually wobble for a few seconds, spin upright for a while, then start to wobble again with increasing amplitude as it loses energy, and finally tip over and roll on its side. Tops exist in many variations and materials, chiefly wood, metal, and plastic, often with a metal tip. They may be set in motion by twirling a handle with the fingers, by pulling a rope coiled around the body, or through a built-in auger (spiral plunger). Such toys have been used since antiquity in solitary or competitive games, where each player tries to keep one's top spinning for as long as possible or achieve some other goal. Some tops have faceted bodies with symbols or inscriptions, and are used like dice to inject randomness into games or for divination and ritual purposes. The ubiq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinetic Art
Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or that depends on motion for its effects. Canvas paintings that extend the viewer's perspective of the artwork and incorporate multidimensional movement are the earliest examples of kinetic art. More pertinently speaking, kinetic art is a term that today most often refers to three-dimensional sculptures and figures such as mobiles that move naturally or are machine operated (see e.g. videos on this page of works of George Rickey and Uli Aschenborn). The moving parts are generally powered by wind, a motor or the observer. Kinetic art encompasses a wide variety of overlapping techniques and styles. There is also a portion of kinetic art that includes virtual movement, or rather movement perceived from only certain angles or sections of the work. This term also clashes frequently with the term "apparent movement", which many people use when referring to an artwork whose movement is created b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinwheel (toy)
A pinwheel is a simple child's toy made of a wheel of paper or plastic curls attached at its axle to a stick by a pin. It is designed to spin when blown upon by a person or by the wind. History A similar toy had developed independently in Polynesia (known as ''pekapeka'' or ''peʻapeʻa'') using either coconut palm leaflets or strips of pandanus leaves; in colder climates like that of New Zealand (the toy also called ''pepepe'' in Māori), phormium leaves are used. Today's most popular style of pinwheels is rooted in East Asia. The design for example is typical of a japanese origami folding technique for a pinwheel. During the nineteenth century in the United States, any wind-driven toy held aloft by a running child was characterized as a whirligig, including pinwheels. Pinwheels provided many children with numerous minutes of enjoyment and amusement. See also * List of toys References External links How to Make a Pinwheelat wikiHow wikiHow is an online wik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bamboo-copter
The bamboo-copter, also known as the bamboo dragonfly or Chinese top ( Chinese ''zhuqingting'' (竹蜻蜓), Japanese ''taketonbo'' ), is a toy helicopter rotor that flies up when its shaft is rapidly spun. This helicopter-like top originated in Jin dynasty China around 320 AD, and was the object of early experiments by English engineer George Cayley, the inventor of modern aeronautics.Leishman, J. Gordon (2006)''Principles of Helicopter Aerodynamics'' Cambridge University Press. pp. 7–9. In China, the earliest known flying toys consisted of feathers at the end of a stick, which was rapidly spun between the hands and released into flight. "While the Chinese top was no more than a toy, it is perhaps the first tangible device of what we may understand as a helicopter." The Jin dynasty Daoist philosopher Ge Hong's (c. 317) book '' Baopuzi'' (抱樸子 "Master Who Embraces Simplicity") mentioned a flying vehicle in what Joseph Needham calls "truly an astonishing passage".J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propeller (aircraft)
In aeronautics, an aircraft propeller, also called an airscrew,Beaumont, R.A.; ''Aeronautical Engineering'', Odhams, 1942, Chapter 13, "Airscrews". converts rotary motion from an engine or other power source into a swirling slipstream which pushes the propeller forwards or backwards. It comprises a rotating power-driven hub, to which are attached several radial airfoil-section blades such that the whole assembly rotates about a longitudinal axis. The blade pitch may be fixed, manually variable to a few set positions, or of the automatically variable "constant-speed" type. The propeller attaches to the power source's driveshaft either directly or through reduction gearing. Propellers can be made from wood, metal or composite materials. Propellers are most suitable for use at subsonic airspeeds generally below about , although supersonic speeds were achieved in the McDonnell XF-88B experimental propeller-equipped aircraft. Supersonic tip-speeds are used in some aircraft like the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gee-haw Whammy Diddle
A gee-haw whammy diddle is a Mechanical system, mechanical toy consisting of two wooden sticks. One has a series of notches cut transversely along its side and a smaller wooden stick or a propeller attached to the end with a nail or pin. This stick is held stationary in one hand with the notches up, and the other stick is rubbed rapidly back and forth across the notches. This causes the propeller to rotate. Sometimes also known as a ouija windmill, a hoodoo stick or a VooDoo stick. The word ''whammy'' is sometimes ''whimmy,'' and the word ''diddle'' sometimes ''doodle'', giving it three possible other names, and the ''gee-haw'' may also be dropped. ''Gee-haw'' refers to the fact that, by rubbing a finger against the notched stick while rubbing, the direction of the spinning propeller may be reversed. The operator may do this surreptitiously and yell "gee" or "haw" to make it appear that the propeller is reacting to the commands. When called a ''hooey stick'', the word "hooey" is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cardinal Whirligig
Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of eastern North America ***Pyrrhuloxia or desert cardinal, ''Cardinalis sinuatus'', found in southwest North America ***Vermilion cardinal, ''Cardinalis phoeniceus'', found in Colombia and Venezuela * Cardinal (Catholic Church), a senior official of the Catholic Church **Member of the College of Cardinals * Cardinal Health, a health care services company * Cardinal number ** Large cardinal * Cardinal direction, one of the four primary directions: north, south, east, and west * Arizona Cardinals, an American professional football team * St. Louis Cardinals, an American professional baseball team Cardinal or The Cardinal may also refer to: Animals Birds In addition to the aforementioned cardinalids: * ''Paroaria'', a South American genu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
