You have to turn on the subtitles to fully enjoy this
January 23, 2020 8:20 AM   Subscribe

A Frisbee, pushed by the wind, rolling on a frozen lake in Maine. I repeat: you have to turn on the subtitles to fully enjoy this.
posted by ShooBoo (43 comments total) 49 users marked this as a favorite
 
I want that lake.
posted by saturday_morning at 8:25 AM on January 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


Ah yes, good ol Maine entertainment.

We actually shoveled off a pond over the MLK day weekend and hosed it down. Built a sled ramp for the kids the next day to see how far they could glide. Answer: about as far as we cared to shovel.

If you end up near a frozen lake, this is the one time those dish sleds are actually the exact right tool.
posted by selfnoise at 8:27 AM on January 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


Conservation of angular momentum: not just a good idea; it's the law.
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:29 AM on January 23, 2020 [29 favorites]


With a side helping of Bernoulli effect!
posted by darkstar at 8:34 AM on January 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


skateskateskateskate
posted by Frayed Knot at 8:38 AM on January 23, 2020 [4 favorites]


bipbipbip
posted by poffin boffin at 8:40 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


ICE DISC!

Grass always ruins the fun.
posted by bondcliff at 8:46 AM on January 23, 2020


00:02 shhh shhh skkkh shhh skkk
00:04 weeeooonneewwwwswwwwkiwwww shh shhhhh
00:07 swwwwwsshhh swwwwwsshhhh
00:09 bipbipbipbipbibipskitterskitter
00:16 magic of some type
posted by mhoye at 8:53 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


I have to admit, this was *well* past "magic of some type" before I realized these subtitles weren't automatically generated.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:56 AM on January 23, 2020 [27 favorites]


I teach chemistry, and at the beginning of each semester in the labs, we show the now-famous chemistry safety video. It was developed in the 1980s and has some weird quirks. It even has its own FB fan page!

But anyway, a few years back, we were trying to get it ADA compliant, with subtitles for the hearing impaired. That’s when someone in the department suggested that YouTube autogenerates captioned! Yay! We don’t have to deal with getting the whole 35 minute video captioned!

That was when we found out that YouTube sometimes autogenerates captions for sounds that are not spoken.

Most notably, the background 80s synth theme music was captioned as “Moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo moo.”
posted by darkstar at 9:07 AM on January 23, 2020 [57 favorites]


Metafilter: magic of some type.
posted by dannyboybell at 9:14 AM on January 23, 2020 [8 favorites]


darkstar, can you share any more identifying details for that video? this one from the ACS maybe? hoping to see the chemistry equivalent of Staplerfahrer Klaus
posted by exogenous at 9:21 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


Inside of the disc says fmsultimate.com, Falmouth (ME) Middle School Ultimate. Right now, lakes in or near Falmouth have about a foot of snow (I live on a lake that spans 3 towns, incl. Falmouth, probably not this lake). Thanks for posting this excellent video.
posted by theora55 at 9:25 AM on January 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


From youtube: I filmed this while out skating on Great Pond in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The disc moved entirely due to the wind.
posted by theora55 at 9:29 AM on January 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


shooboo is not wrong about the subtitles.

I'm wondering, is it the spin that helps it keep its balance, like a top? Does that work vertically as well as horizontally?
posted by tavella at 9:41 AM on January 23, 2020


They see me rollin'
posted by valkane at 9:44 AM on January 23, 2020 [4 favorites]


I watch a lot of YouTube home machinist content, and I often use captions so I can keep the sound low. Turns out that Google’s algorithm frequently understands the noise produced by making chips of various sorts as [Applause].

Can’t watch the video right now but looking forward to it!
posted by Alterscape at 9:47 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


> I'm wondering, is it the spin that helps it keep its balance, like a top? Does that work vertically as well as horizontally?

Yes! It's the same principle that keeps the bike upright when cycling (conservation of angular momentum).
posted by Westringia F. at 9:51 AM on January 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


This is very good.

Most notably, the background 80s synth theme music was captioned as

knock knock
who's there
interrupting autocaptioned background 80s synth theme music
posted by cortex at 9:54 AM on January 23, 2020 [12 favorites]


...you know, I had never thought about the wheel spin on a bike being the same function as a top, thanks Westringia!
posted by tavella at 9:56 AM on January 23, 2020


Conservation of angular momentum

Nah, it's just going down a hill.
posted by waving at 10:03 AM on January 23, 2020


exogenous, yes, that’s the one!

But I’ve just checked the auto captions, and it appears that YouTube has significantly improved their algorithm, because it’s not “moo-moo-ing” in the synth intro anymore.

That’s progress, but I’m a little sad that Safety Cow has retired to a farm upstate.
posted by darkstar at 10:10 AM on January 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


The camerawork here is incredible. Following a whizzing, windblown object on an unpredictable path at close quarters, on an icy, bumpy surface... and the disc hardly ever leaves the frame! Bravo.
posted by oulipian at 10:12 AM on January 23, 2020 [8 favorites]


I give it a 5.7, even without any triples.
posted by umbú at 10:34 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


You know...for kids!
posted by Chuffy at 10:37 AM on January 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


The camerawork here is incredible.

I kept thinking, "Where is the camera? Are they chasing this with a drone?" Until the other skater came into view and I was like "oh. but still, wow!"
posted by straight at 10:39 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


> hoping to see the chemistry equivalent of Staplerfahrer Klaus

Be still, my heart! PLEASE tell me this is a thing.
posted by davelog at 10:40 AM on January 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


That the angular momentum of the wheels is what make a bicycle stable is a commonly held misconception (mostly). Here's a MinutePhysics video that addresses the issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZAc5t2lkvo.

(Next, ask me why the common schoolbook explanation for how airplane wings work is (mostly) wrong - I feel like I am that guy in the New Yorker cartoon, unable to go to bed, because, somewhere on the Internet, someone is wrong!)
posted by Johnny Quaternion at 10:51 AM on January 23, 2020 [13 favorites]


Johnny Quaternion: I feel like I am that guy in the New Yorker cartoon, unable to go to bed, because, somewhere on the Internet, someone is wrong!

And now I'll be that guy - it's not a New Yorker cartoon, it's xkcd.
posted by clawsoon at 10:55 AM on January 23, 2020 [21 favorites]


Staplerfahrer Klaus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z77oztO6UQ

...the auto translate is half the fun.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 11:15 AM on January 23, 2020


And now I'll be that guy - it's not a New Yorker cartoon, it's xkcd.

I assumed that was intentional...
posted by jacquilynne at 11:18 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


Johnny Quaternion, that's really interesting, thanks! So it's a combination of self-righting steering and conservation of angular momentum that restores the bike to upright.

(Here we have something that's closer to a unicycle/coin rolling, tho -- so I would guess it's a combination of conservation of angular momentum and a profile that stabilizes the frisbee.)
posted by Westringia F. at 11:20 AM on January 23, 2020


Does a low-friction surface like ice help the frisbee to roll further, or inhibit it's ability to do so by allowing less purchase?
posted by Paul Slade at 12:48 PM on January 23, 2020


It probably helps because by skittering along the ice, it can turn more into the wind and catch more air.

But for science, someone should try this in a large flat parking lot and using rollerblades.
posted by sjswitzer at 12:58 PM on January 23, 2020


A lot of the time the frisbee doesn't seem to be spinning very fast. There must be some aerodynamic stabilization going on in addition to any gyroscopic effects, though I'm not nearly smart enough to figure it out.
posted by clawsoon at 1:05 PM on January 23, 2020


shhh shhh skkkh shhh skkk
weeeooonneewwwwswwwwkiwwww shh shhhhh
swwwwwsshhh swwwwwsshhhh
bipbipbipbipbibipskitterskitter
magic of some type
wwwwwooowwwoowwwswwwswwshhh
sssssshhhhhkkkkkshhh
bipbipbip
swwwwwwwssshhhh
whirlytwirlytwirlywhirly
skateskateskateskate
sswwwwwhhhhhwwwwhhhw
swwwshhshwwwshwww
they see me rollin'
cracklecracklecracklebittlecrackkle
more cracklecracklewhittlecracckle
how is this thing still going!?
Science.
crackle
swwwwwwwwwwsshhhhhhhhhhst
Satisfying snapplesnattersettle.
posted by scruss at 1:11 PM on January 23, 2020 [5 favorites]


Does What It Says On The Tin, All Time Grand Champion
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:43 PM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]


Hey I've skated on that pond. I wore knee pads because I'm not a good skater. Afterwards we went for hot chocolate.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:59 PM on January 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


I grew up in a house on the shore of lake ontario. At the end of the street (about 5 houses down) a creek flowed into the lake - this made for some fantastic skating in the winter, and this video made me miss that place like crazy.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 7:19 PM on January 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the dog to appear.
posted by unliteral at 7:50 PM on January 23, 2020 [3 favorites]


This would make a great ASMR video. It was so soothing.
posted by gt2 at 3:26 AM on January 24, 2020 [2 favorites]


These comments reminded me so hard why I love dis place. I LOLed, I learned science stuff, people had personal connections... particularly now it's so nice to have this.
posted by Cocodrillo at 3:37 AM on January 24, 2020 [4 favorites]


That’s progress, but I’m a little sad that Safety Cow has retired to a farm upstate.

Dana Carvey/Tom Brokaw voice: It was delicious.
posted by Guy Smiley at 5:05 PM on January 24, 2020


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