This video compilation of popsicle stick chain reaction tricks, aka stick bombs, by domino artist Lily Hevesh of the Hevesh5 YouTube channel, keeps going and going for eight minutes. Watch as dominoes and popsicle sticks fall and burst through room after room.
There are a few different popsicle stick configurations in the video, but its chain reaction star is the cobra weave, a spring-loaded technique of bending and interlocking the tongue depressor-size popsicle sticks. From the American Journal of Physics:
“When weaving the chain, one realizes that a large potential energy is stored in the sticks, and the ends of the chain must be held still by using a weight or one’s hand… When one end of the chain is released, the so-called ‘stick bomb’ detonates—the potential energy is released as the sticks pop up and a traveling wave is formed…”
“Such a dramatic physics demonstration has high pedagogical potential. This problem can indeed provide an amusing introduction to solid mechanics, giving a simple example of the conversion of stored elastic energy into kinetic and gravitational potential energy in which students can measure an energetic yield and consider sources of dissipation.”
Watch these videos next:
• How to make a Popsicle Stick Chain Reaction
• 3 Guinness World Records – Disc Cases, Stick Bomb, & Domino Wall
• A-Trak & Tommy Trash’s Tuna Melt
• Lily Hevesh, the number 1 domino artist in the world
Bonus: DIY Tensegrity Tutorial: How does this ‘anti-gravity’ structure work?
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