Thank you very much for scanning all of them into a PDF.
3 Likes
I reached out to @kyo to see if he would have any issues with these documents being uploaded to the Interent Archives and he said go for it! You can find them in all their glory here!
12 Likes
I’m pretty sure that perception has a great deal to do with more subjective adjectives like “float”. I don’t mean that it’s completely subjective, or that there isn’t an objective way to measure float.
As a parallel example of perception (this is not about floatiness), I had a G2 Respawn Lite that felt heavier than El Mijo. Technically, El Mijo is 5g heavier (58g vs 53g, but my brain just couldn’t get around how much it expected each yo-yo to weigh. The smaller, much more compact size of the Respawn Lite just really threw my brain off.
I think this effect is lessened in unresponsive yo-yos, but I have a feeling a similar thing is happening when people talk about a yo-yo feeling floaty. Being still fairly new to yo-yos (~4 years), I honestly don’t get this. I’m sure part of the reason is I just haven’t had a chance to play with enough different yo-yos; maybe after I’ve tried a bunch more yo-yos I can get a better handle on float. I also don’t get what it means to be fast.
Does that mean that the yo-yo can maintain spin/attitude while being moved around really fast? Does it mean that the yo-yo can change directly quickly?
I would think that technical/speed combos are more difficult with organic shaped yo-yos because those sorts of trick often involves a lot of string wraps and intricate string configuration, during which it becomes increasingly difficult to keep all the string segments away from the sides of the yo-yo, creating friction, which results in slower spin and procession.
2 Likes
I heard about this a little while ago; I think @DocPop was talking about them.
2 Likes
This documentation is Amazing! Thank you for sharing this, and those that are going to maintain it for future generations.
I can’t imagine the amount of time this took for Mr. Watson to put together. Hand Written and Drawn!!! That penmanship!!!
I think it is a testament to the way things used to be.
While I don’t understand it yet, I will be nerding out over this for a while.
“Find fun stuff to do already-” D. Watson Apparently he really enjoyed this!
Please remember Mr. Watson was in his late 70’s when he put these together!
5 Likes
I’ll take it a step further and say float is -entirely- subjective and that nobody can even agree on what it means. We’ve been trying to quantify it for decades but it’s a moving target based on personal preference.
To be super general though… Light yoyos tend to feel ‘faster’ even with rim weight. Having done surveys of players though, there is no consensus.
6 Likes
Here is a link to a scan of Professor Wolfgang Burger’s Article that Mr. Watson referenced.
For anyone else nerding out.
3 Likes
I shared a post about Don “Captain Yo” Watson and his engineer’s notebooks on my blog if anyone wants to read it. Don Watson's "Yo-Yo Physics" Zines - Doc Pop's Weblog
I’m curious, does anyone know how Don is doing these days? I think about him often, but don’t have any contact info for him.
13 Likes
Float seems like a pretty subjective term overall to me. It seems to vary in definition depending on who you talk to.
The way I understand it, MOI has minimal impact on how the yoyo actually moves, because the yoyo’s MOI with respect to your finger changes very minimally (as you and Mark have shown). MOI more so plays into how stable the yoyo is.
I think float the way I understand it is more a result of other factors such as the weight, the pads, the bearing & axle, and the actual rotation speed of the yoyo (which I think does have to do with MOI). Then again, this is just speculation.
1 Like
I last spoke with him in 2018 and he seemed to be doing ok at the time, minus the standard health issues of being old. He would be 98 now I believe.
5 Likes
This is amazing 
Preserving these yo-yo physics pamphlets is pure gold. Thank you, everyone, and know that we support the Internet Archive in so many ways, and I know people there personally.
However – I think these were written when yo-yos were all made of simple wood? The physics have not changed, but the materials – and what we can do with them – definitely have. A lot.
I mean, I like Pumping Wood, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a reason we don’t build a lot of things out of plain old wood any more..
4 Likes
I don’t think so! Don used Tornado 2, plastic yoyo with and without metal weight rings, for a case study in part 2. That internet archive link is only for part 3 of 5 as far as I can tell. These zines are an amazing resource though and the physics haven’t changed.
Part 1 also talks about different materials and how that effects total density and volume.
I would be curious to see a physics exploration of yoyo width and how that effects the other metrics bc all the yoyos used as case studies were narrow compared to today.
1 Like
On OneDrop’s product page for the DS61, they say they have a formula that can predict how floaty a yoyo can be, and also a chart of all onedrop yoyos. DS-61 - One Drop YoYos
I would love to see that chart if anyone has it, it doesn’t seem like OneDrop has posted it.
1 Like
Does it talk about Delrin? Titanium? Aluminum 6061? 7075? Bimetal? Tungsten? Magnesium? Steel? I dunno. The world has kinda changed in terms of what we can machine, super accurately, and relatively inexpensively..
Wood is, IMO, one of the worst materials in terms of how much you can control it. It’s simple, classic, yes, but .. limited.
Not to mention 3D printing, not just in plastics, but in other substances amenable to 3d printing as well.
My gut feeling is it’s about weight distribution in
- width (super wide? narrow?)
- diameter (small? med? large? ridiculous offstring size)
- edge / far outer ring weight vs. center weight (balanced? most at center? most at outside edges?)
- shape (mild effect, I think)
random note: try throwing a yo-yo with cutouts / holes to see how profound air resistance can be at this speed.
2 Likes
I’d be happy to write a white paper on this
(i have a bachelors in physics)
but it might be a bit dry or math heavy so be careful what you wish for
4 Likes
Lol no thank you I would rather spend my time playing yoyo than reading allot
3 Likes
I would genuinely read this
3 Likes
2 Likes
lol, give me a week or 2, im gonna be very busy next 5 days with work and some personal errands 
1 Like
I was amazed by this when I bought my first, and last yo-yo with cut-outs. Yes it looks cool but the air resistance just overwhelms all other factors of yo-yo play.
What is ‘float’? To me, float is when the yo-yo does not behave in the way you expect it to. Instead it ‘floats’ in mid-air rather than fall as normal. Again; think of a frisbee. We love it because it does not behave as we expect it to. Instead it ‘floats’ gracefully in the air and flies long and straight to the person we threw it to (if we are good at this). It does not behave like a ball. It ‘floats’.
Scientifically, that could be quantified with a frisbee and baseball by comparing the flight of a ball over 25 yards to the flight of a frisbee over the same distance.
3 Likes