The Dancing Disc

Hier geht es zur deutschen Version: Die Tanzende Scheibe

Kit for a large Leonhard Euler commemorative medal: complete with mirror stand that lets it Dance for up to 1 1/2 minutes with increasing speed

AstroMedia meets Leonhard Euler

This cardboard kit for a dancing disc is a bow to the brilliant mathematician Leonhard Euler and dedicated to his memory. It was he who first summarised the spinning process in several mathematical formulas, the Euler Equations.

A coin that spins and spins and spins

Who doesn't know this? If you give an upright coin a skilful push, it spins and spins faster and faster until it suddenly comes to a halt with a splash. The dancing disc is considerably larger and heavier than an ordinary coin. In addition, the side edges of the disc have been optimised so that friction losses are particularly low. This makes it spin all the longer and more impressively. Professionals can make the disc oscillate for over 2 minutes. The kit includes a round mirror that is slightly curved inwards, helping the stainless steel disc not to move too far from the centre during its dance.

The principle

Give the dancing disc a good push with a rotating movement. Due to its weight, it tilts a little more with each rotation, becoming faster and louder. To put it simply, the disc gains the energy required for the increasingly faster dance from the approach of its centre of gravity to the base surface: at the beginning, it is straightened up, and the force needed for this is contained in the disc as potential energy ("position energy"). This is released when the disc tilts and is converted into rotational movement energy.