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Whirlyball
Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level 
An experiment in circular motion using a conker on a string.
The introductory video of 'Shaggy' whirling his conker was created with a program that includes a simulation engine for Newtonian mechanics. We used this engine to animate the conker and its string - so the resulting motion is in a sense 'real'.
Shaggy's hand drives the string. Its motion was defined using trigonometric functions of time applied to the various joints that make up the Shaggy model. In the final 5 seconds the hand moves with exactly half the frequency of the motion which set the conker whirling initially. Its amplitude is however unchanged.
The introductory video of 'Shaggy' whirling his conker was created with a program that includes a simulation engine for Newtonian mechanics. We used this engine to animate the conker and its string - so the resulting motion is in a sense 'real'.
Shaggy's hand drives the string. Its motion was defined using trigonometric functions of time applied to the various joints that make up the Shaggy model. In the final 5 seconds the hand moves with exactly half the frequency of the motion which set the conker whirling initially. Its amplitude is however unchanged.
