specifically this Lego variant gives me the shivers though as all the weight of the upper part hangs on this tiny chain connector with less than a mm diameter.
Yea I’ve got this actual set, and it’s so fun to see how much you can make it wiggle by tapping the chains before it collapses. Also, for those unaware, it’s not an official Lego set and can be bought for like $2 on temu lmao
Have you handled one in real life? Seeing them in person and being able to feel the tension at play takes a lot of the magic out of it vs just seeing a video.
Notice the pillar standing on the platform with a short chain hanging of it? That's it. All the weight is hanging on the bottom of that chain. Everything else just sells the illusion, that the upper structure seems to be floating.
It's like climbing on top of a horse. The upper structure in the video is standing like a person in the stirrup on one side and leaning over the horse (the pillar), if you don't hold onto anything, you'll tip over and fall to the ground (unless you have perfect balance). But if someone from the opposing side of the horse hands you a rope, the rope under tension will prevent you from falling back as you lean away from the rope (although your foot in the stirrup may move and get angled a bit). That the 2 other ropes in the video go up from the ground is just perspective fuckery to sell the illusion, all they do is help stabilize the balance of the structure in the 'stirrup'. The only other big selling point of the illusion is, that the ropes have perfect length to calibrate the weight&tension, so that there's no leaning on the stirrup, keeping it perfectly straight pulling down. If you cut any of the extra ropes, it'll tip over, if you cut the stirrup rope, it'll fall down into the pillar.
My first idea was a swingset, because everyone has experienced that as a kid or could go to a playground and just try it. But then they would still be confused, because the swing is clearly mounted above. So I needed something that was hanging much lower, that you could stand on..hold on..that's just a horse..it helps that the structure in the video already looks like someone leaning over in an abstract way.
It's all about the left side. Given the shape, that side pulls down and to the left, which also pulls the long chain connectors backward. From the view we have, think of it like gravity pulling on that shape in a way that makes it turn counter clockwise.
As the force of gravity makes it "rotate," the small chain catches the left side. The reason it doesn't crumble is because that rotation is pulling the long chains backward slightly, so they're actually being pulled to the left.
All the weight is pushing down on the left small chain.
The two long chains stabilize the weight so it doesn’t just fall over.
It’s pretty simple once you get it. Imagine there being no long chains on the right… you can just lightly rest your hand on the shape because the small chain is hold it up… now you think, “I can keep this in place if I made 2 guide wires connecting it to the base”…. Looks like it’s floating but not at all.
Every damn time there has to be one of these 'but akschually' comments in here lol.
'Legos' is part of the vernacular. Hate it, downvote, whatever, but that's reality y'all. That's not controlled by a corporation, or by the European grammar police.
As a offender against the Europeen Grammar Police, we have Jean Calloumet and Markus Koffman. You will ful-fill our demands within 24 hours or they will be returned to you in a box . Good day
It’s not even about that to me, here in Australia we just refer to it as “lego” and couldn’t give a shit about whether it’s an official name or anything. Part of the vernacular just the same.
We think of the name like a substance as a whole, “legos” sounds as weird to me as if you said you went to the beach and made a castle out of “sands”. Or that each individual grain is “a sand”.
(Not trying to say either is wrong, just explaining why it sounds odd enough that people may comment on it)
Ha yeah you're right, for some reason that's just something that's come up locally when I grew up I suppose. My city (Adelaide) is kind of an outlier in Australia anyway with the stuff traditionally pronouncing it more like "laygo" so I'm sure the rest of the country thinks we're weird.
To some people, calling mathematics ‘maths’ sounds funny. Or calling it ‘math’ sounds funny. That’s the cool thing about language, they’re both part of the vernacular so they both get to exist.
I don’t make a habit of laughing at children though. Seems mean, you might want to work on that.
I’d never laugh at kids, nor did I say I would. However if you’re a full grown adult saying “legos” after hearing for years/decades that it’s wrong… then you need to expect that others are going to give you the side eye every time you say it. It’s like pronouncing WiFi as “whiffy”.
I find it peculiar how a single comment just explaining something with 0 indication of tone in a short one sentence post gets tons of people blasting it.
Like calm down folks it's just a bit of trivia, don't get your pants in a bunch. u/petantic only said what it was and nothing more. It's a "let us learn" not a "let us harass the teacher because I don't like to be told the truth."
I actually am American (and am happy to be corrected) and yes it is pretty bad over here as "confidence" is more important than being right.
However I've seen it from people from all over the world, a lot of it comes with age (I know more than you because I'm older). Sometimes it just comes from scholarly pursuits (I've studied this thing so I know more, aka Appeal to Authority). And sometimes it just comes from overconfidence or general childishness.
But really this is one of the cases where I will stand up and go "yes this happens everywhere, Americans are dumb and probably do it more often, but don't use America to ignore what also happens elsewhere"
I had this same set! It’s a super cheap and fast build. It’s also the only set I’ve ever put glue on because it’s always under slight stress and slowly falls apart
It’s not, but there are a LOT of really cool sets out there that aren’t Lego, this being one of them. I don’t think Lego would make this since it’s constantly under stress which is an “illegal” building technique
I do Amazon. Look up Lego and keep scrolling. They start popping up and you’ll see some cool sets. I go into their store pages on there and you can see what they do. Some specialize in vehicles, others do Lego knockoffs but most do their own things
Not really, though I think I get what you’re likely thinking. Look up Lego illegal building techniques and you’ll get an idea of what Lego will never put in a set.
Tensegrity
Tensegrity Farms
We member
I member
You member?
Member when you could trust the government?
‘Member Chewbacca?
'memba the 90's?
'member when there weren't so many Mexicans?
OHHHHHH I MEMBER
Pshhhhh that was never a thing 😂😂
Member when the government killed a man's family and sent him to prison because they got him to modify guns. I Member
Cone
my absolute favourite practical engineering concept
specifically this Lego variant gives me the shivers though as all the weight of the upper part hangs on this tiny chain connector with less than a mm diameter.
Yea I’ve got this actual set, and it’s so fun to see how much you can make it wiggle by tapping the chains before it collapses. Also, for those unaware, it’s not an official Lego set and can be bought for like $2 on temu lmao
I’m going to need that link brother
My comment was removed due to link but “tensegrity” in temu search pulls up plenty
Such a cool thing, but idk why the name pisses me off.
Same
/r/tensegrity
That was the hot word on r/lego for like 8 months
They did some amazing builds
Nice band name.
r/stolemycomment
r/beatmetoit
tensegrity structures are cool because, much like me, stress is the only thing holding them together.
I cannot comprehend these things. It breaks my brain every time
Have you handled one in real life? Seeing them in person and being able to feel the tension at play takes a lot of the magic out of it vs just seeing a video.
No i have only seen clips
Yeah also, seeing someone explain it or drawing a diagram of the forces involved helps to understand it too.
It's not that complicated.
Notice the pillar standing on the platform with a short chain hanging of it? That's it. All the weight is hanging on the bottom of that chain. Everything else just sells the illusion, that the upper structure seems to be floating.
It's like climbing on top of a horse. The upper structure in the video is standing like a person in the stirrup on one side and leaning over the horse (the pillar), if you don't hold onto anything, you'll tip over and fall to the ground (unless you have perfect balance). But if someone from the opposing side of the horse hands you a rope, the rope under tension will prevent you from falling back as you lean away from the rope (although your foot in the stirrup may move and get angled a bit). That the 2 other ropes in the video go up from the ground is just perspective fuckery to sell the illusion, all they do is help stabilize the balance of the structure in the 'stirrup'. The only other big selling point of the illusion is, that the ropes have perfect length to calibrate the weight&tension, so that there's no leaning on the stirrup, keeping it perfectly straight pulling down. If you cut any of the extra ropes, it'll tip over, if you cut the stirrup rope, it'll fall down into the pillar.
A person in one stirrup leaning over a horse while holding a rope is such an accurate example, what the hell.
A balancing cowboy tensegirty art piece would go so hard.
My first idea was a swingset, because everyone has experienced that as a kid or could go to a playground and just try it. But then they would still be confused, because the swing is clearly mounted above. So I needed something that was hanging much lower, that you could stand on..hold on..that's just a horse..it helps that the structure in the video already looks like someone leaning over in an abstract way.
It’s pretty simple. You hang the top part off the bottom part, with some extra chains to hold it steady from flipping over
It's all about the left side. Given the shape, that side pulls down and to the left, which also pulls the long chain connectors backward. From the view we have, think of it like gravity pulling on that shape in a way that makes it turn counter clockwise.
As the force of gravity makes it "rotate," the small chain catches the left side. The reason it doesn't crumble is because that rotation is pulling the long chains backward slightly, so they're actually being pulled to the left.
The weight is hanging from the bottom chain. The others are only for balancing.
Strat from the lower part/ lower chain. If you were to cut the two longer ones, what would happen to the suspended part?
It’s pulling itself still.
Just think about it doing the exact opposite of what your brain wants it to be, and that’s physics most of the time.
All the weight is pushing down on the left small chain.
The two long chains stabilize the weight so it doesn’t just fall over.
It’s pretty simple once you get it. Imagine there being no long chains on the right… you can just lightly rest your hand on the shape because the small chain is hold it up… now you think, “I can keep this in place if I made 2 guide wires connecting it to the base”…. Looks like it’s floating but not at all.
Just like me, somehow upright despite massive stress
Now I'm imagining all the stress Clippy got from Windows 98 users
The plural of Lego is Lego.
Every damn time there has to be one of these 'but akschually' comments in here lol.
'Legos' is part of the vernacular. Hate it, downvote, whatever, but that's reality y'all. That's not controlled by a corporation, or by the European grammar police.
Lego deez nuts...
Lego my eggo
Lego my ego
L'ego
Let go
I will not 😏
As an officer of the European Grammar Police, we follow all lines of inquiry and do our best to prosecute offenders.
As a offender against the Europeen Grammar Police, we have Jean Calloumet and Markus Koffman. You will ful-fill our demands within 24 hours or they will be returned to you in a box . Good day
I must inform you of section 12 paragraph 9: fulfil is one word.
We just killt Jean. This is yer foist and finale warnin.
I'm not a part of your system man..... I take your Lego and throw em on the ground
My dad's not a phone!
It is just Lego tho.
It’s not even about that to me, here in Australia we just refer to it as “lego” and couldn’t give a shit about whether it’s an official name or anything. Part of the vernacular just the same.
We think of the name like a substance as a whole, “legos” sounds as weird to me as if you said you went to the beach and made a castle out of “sands”. Or that each individual grain is “a sand”.
(Not trying to say either is wrong, just explaining why it sounds odd enough that people may comment on it)
So how do you refer to a single piece? “A piece of Lego”? Genuinely curious
Yeah that, or a block. Or whatever the specific part is.
It's a brick, not a block.
Ha yeah you're right, for some reason that's just something that's come up locally when I grew up I suppose. My city (Adelaide) is kind of an outlier in Australia anyway with the stuff traditionally pronouncing it more like "laygo" so I'm sure the rest of the country thinks we're weird.
You know how when your 4 year old nephew says “underwears” it’s cute, but if a fully grown adult did you’d laugh at them?
Same for adding the “s” to LEGO to try and make it plural.
To some people, calling mathematics ‘maths’ sounds funny. Or calling it ‘math’ sounds funny. That’s the cool thing about language, they’re both part of the vernacular so they both get to exist.
I don’t make a habit of laughing at children though. Seems mean, you might want to work on that.
I’d never laugh at kids, nor did I say I would. However if you’re a full grown adult saying “legos” after hearing for years/decades that it’s wrong… then you need to expect that others are going to give you the side eye every time you say it. It’s like pronouncing WiFi as “whiffy”.
Ahem
It’s LEGO®
Like, if you’re gonna be a boring pedant at least get it right
The Lego Group
I appreciate you.
It's LEGO, not Lego
No need to shout.
He’s not. If you’re going to be pedantic you could at least be correct.
Legopodes
A group of LEGO is called a masonry
According to Lego, it's an adjective, not a noun, so the correct plural is "Lego bricks"
'Having fun with some Lego' would also work
The plural of Lego is Legolas
I thought Legolas meant a lack of Lego?
Lego lass: A Scottish girl playing with Danish building brick toys.
This is also not Lego. It’s a knock off set.
I find it peculiar how a single comment just explaining something with 0 indication of tone in a short one sentence post gets tons of people blasting it.
Like calm down folks it's just a bit of trivia, don't get your pants in a bunch. u/petantic only said what it was and nothing more. It's a "let us learn" not a "let us harass the teacher because I don't like to be told the truth."
Americans don't like being corrected.
I actually am American (and am happy to be corrected) and yes it is pretty bad over here as "confidence" is more important than being right.
However I've seen it from people from all over the world, a lot of it comes with age (I know more than you because I'm older). Sometimes it just comes from scholarly pursuits (I've studied this thing so I know more, aka Appeal to Authority). And sometimes it just comes from overconfidence or general childishness.
But really this is one of the cases where I will stand up and go "yes this happens everywhere, Americans are dumb and probably do it more often, but don't use America to ignore what also happens elsewhere"
Die einzahl von Lego ist Lego.
No, there is no plural of lego. The plural of Lego Brick is Lego Bricks. The plural of Lego Minifig is Lego Minifigs.
Typography and trademarks aside, you're not even getting their position on why using "Legos" is wrong right.
THANK YOU
Only when they are from the Lego region of France. Otherwise, they're just bricks.
[deleted]
Ok, the plural of Lego brick is Lego bricks.
🤓
This is a knockoff set anyway, not real Lego.
Is there even a singular Lego? There's a Lego brick, a Lego set, and a Lego Minifig. But what is a Lego?
Lego is the company, he's playing with lego bricks
I thought it was legolas
Like sheep. And you can take that either way.
This isn't even Lego. A knockoff from Amazon. I have the same thing.
I had this same set! It’s a super cheap and fast build. It’s also the only set I’ve ever put glue on because it’s always under slight stress and slowly falls apart
So you’re saying… I need to glue myself?
Sniffing glue is, technically, a way to reduce stress
If ya cant think about it, you cant stress about it right?
Just go to bed and fall asleep before you fall apart
There's got to be a better way to say that
I don’t think this is an official set….
I got it from Temu for 89 cents pre-tariffs
So 107.89 now, got it
It’s not, but there are a LOT of really cool sets out there that aren’t Lego, this being one of them. I don’t think Lego would make this since it’s constantly under stress which is an “illegal” building technique
What's the best place to get weird unofficial sets like this? Amazon? Or something like Aliexpress or Temu?
I do Amazon. Look up Lego and keep scrolling. They start popping up and you’ll see some cool sets. I go into their store pages on there and you can see what they do. Some specialize in vehicles, others do Lego knockoffs but most do their own things
Isn't every set constantly under stress?
Not really, though I think I get what you’re likely thinking. Look up Lego illegal building techniques and you’ll get an idea of what Lego will never put in a set.
technologia😎
Techonologia!
I started with a Lego version and ended up welding mysef a new living room table ahaha
Pics or didn't happen
You know I was thinking when you made this comment "what if that's the guy I remember posting on Reddit" sure e fucking nough it is 😂
It’s wild to me you remember something I built/posted. That’s pretty cool. Made me smile, thanks!
I don’t know how to post pictures on here. Can creep my previous comments I guess, or let me know how and I’ll post the pics
Surely there are plenty of DIY subs suitable for that, but I don't know one right now.
A popular option for sharing is https://imgur.com/, and you can just post your link here that should be OK
Orr they could link their post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/zPE5gNHXqV
LOL that works too. Nice work u/ssausages
Alec Steele?
The correct plural is Legi.
Now conjugate en Espanol
Do i have to use vosotros?
You never know really do you
Pierno
L E G O
®
Remember when these blew up everywhere?
They're explosive? I don't think that's recommended for children.
Remember the golden Lego that the Israeli guy gave Trump?
wasn't that like 2006? or did it happen again more recently
*Lego
When does the black magic come?
People get confused when they see something supported by one chain and stabilized by two others.
Funny part is this is quite possibly the most basic tensegrity structure.... r/tensegrity blows this off the planet
I have that on my shelf right now, $2.99 from AliExpress
Same here!
I've seen this enough times now that it doesn't look confusing or mysterious at all anymore.
This is probably 5 years old and has nothing to do with magic at all.
I see I’m not the only one this Christmas who googled “kids 8-12 STEM learning toys.”
I like original content that isn't karma farmed by bots
Americans really can't seem to grasp how the plural of LEGO is LEGO.
Or the preferred name for Al is aluminium. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
r/tensegrity
I know how and why it works but it still breaks my brain when I see it.
Tensional integrity
You are 5 years late
r/prettynormalfuckery
Wait. How dare you?
The only table reddit likes more than a pivot table.
Magma!
It's physi- I mean magic baybee
This is as old as the internet
What, are you a witch?
For a second I thought I was on a different sub and was about to see a Lego swastika
Does someone have a link where I could buy this? My brother is a huge Lego fan and an engineer and I really want to gift this to him.
Must not have been around during COVID...
where does one get magnets for plastic?
This would make for a cool ideas build
I kind of want a kitchen table like this.
Can someone please explain the physics behind this?
The structure is suspended from the middle chain, while the two chains on either side stop it from falling over
The real black magic is keeping this thing from falling apart long enough to make a video!
Man I would’ve stoned the shit outta you a couple centuries back!
lol is the fun in the room with us right now?!
I have this exact thing, it ain't lego, it is from temu. It is a cool effect though.
These are becoming ubiquitous
I understand how it works. But it still looks like some kind of forbidden knowledge humanity was never meant to learn.
Is this my sign to get a tensegrity table
The Fuck
How in the hell was that possible?
the one time i 100% expected the answer to be magnets 🙄
I still have this set on my mantle haha
Hubby has this. It's Walt funky 😍
Bicycle wheels kinda work the same way
Technically not lego.
Lego*
One Lego. Two Lego. Many Lego.
it's Lego... not Legos
Which Lego pieces do I have to order to be able to do this?
With all this shaking and that sudden stillness at the end it looks like the video is in reverse, it it’s not. That’s amazing haha
I have that exact same set. Im putting it together tomorrow morning when I get off of work, and yes that is some black magic type of crap.
No matter how many times I hear the explanation behind this I will never understand how it works
I have the same one!
looks so cool
Nice
Ok Ai 🙄
Oh physics! Being all weird again! 😅
Aliexpress, 2$
Fake
This looks totally normal when you see it as a video.
I will never understand why tension is so baffling to people. One chain holds it up and the others stabilize it, incredibly simple
How the fu kckckckck
TEGRITY
No wait
Wow
I couldnt ever figure out how this worked until I saw this video, I get it now
That’s not fun at all, cuz I can’t understand this method