Yo-yo facts for kids
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| Availability | 500 BC – present |
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A yo-yo is a fun toy with an axle (a rod) connecting two round disks. A string is wrapped around the axle, much like a spool. This toy is very old! People have been playing with yo-yos since about 500 BCE. In the 1600s, it was also called a bandalore.
To play, you hold the free end of the string. You usually put your middle or ring finger into a slip knot on the string. Then, you let gravity pull the yo-yo down. This makes the yo-yo spin and the string unwind. After it reaches the end of the string, you let the yo-yo spin back up to your hand. This happens because of its spin and stored energy. People often call this "yo-yoing" or "playing yo-yo."
In the simplest way to play, you wind the string onto the yo-yo by hand. You throw the yo-yo down, it hits the end of the string, and then it winds back up to your hand. You then catch it, ready to throw again. One common trick is called the sleeper. With this trick, the yo-yo spins at the end of the string for a while before coming back to your hand.
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The Yo-Yo's Name and Its Long History
The word "yo-yo" likely comes from the Ilocano word "yóyo." This language is spoken in the Philippines.
A painting on an ancient Greek vase from 440 BC shows a boy playing with a yo-yo. Old Greek records talk about toys made from wood, metal, or painted clay (called terra cotta). The clay yo-yos were sometimes given to gods as a special gift when a child grew up. Yo-yos made of other materials were used for everyday play.
The First Yo-Yo Company and Big Changes
In 1928, a man named Pedro Flores started the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company. He was a Filipino immigrant in Santa Barbara, California. He began with only a dozen handmade toys. But by November 1929, Flores had two more factories in Los Angeles and Hollywood. These factories had 600 workers and made 300,000 yo-yos every day!
The yo-yo design that Pedro Flores made popular was different from older ones. In older yo-yos, the string was tied directly to the axle. This meant the yo-yo could only go up and down. It would return easily, but it couldn't "sleep" (spin at the bottom of the string). Flores used a special string that was looped around the axle. This "looped slip-string" made a huge difference! It allowed the yo-yo to spin freely for a longer time. This meant players could do many more cool and complex tricks.
Soon after, around 1929, a smart businessman named Donald F. Duncan saw how popular the yo-yo was becoming. He bought Flores's company and everything it owned. In 1932, the company's name became the Duncan Yo-yo Company.
The name "Yo-yo" was officially registered as a trademark in 1932. That same year, Harvey Lowe won the first World Yo-Yo Contest in London, England. Also in 1932, yo-yos called "Kalmartrissan" started to be made in Sweden.
In 1933, yo-yos were actually banned in Syria. Many local people thought playing with them caused a bad drought!
In 1946, the Duncan Toys Company opened a yo-yo factory in Luck, Wisconsin. The Duncan yo-yo was later put into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Yo-Yos Become Popular Again in the 1960s
After World War II, yo-yo sales went down. So, in 1962, Duncan started a big advertising campaign on TV to make his "Yo-Yo" popular again.
In 1965, there was a court case about the "Yo-yo" name. A court decided that "yo-yo" had become a common word. This meant Duncan no longer had the only right to use the name. Because of the money spent on this legal fight and other money problems, the Duncan family sold their company name in 1968. They sold it to Flambeau, Inc, which had been making Duncan's plastic yo-yos since 1955. As of 2020, Flambeau Plastics still runs the company.
The Rise of Ball Bearings in Yo-Yos
As yo-yos became more popular in the 1970s and 1980s, new ideas came out. These ideas mostly changed how the string connected to the axle. In 1979, a dentist and yo-yo expert named Tom Kuhn invented the "No Jive 3-in-1" yo-yo. This was the first yo-yo you could take apart, which let players change the axle.
A Swedish company called SKF made some special yo-yos with ball bearings inside in 1984. Then, in 1990, Tom Kuhn brought out the SB-2 yo-yo. It had an aluminum axle with a ball bearing. This was the first really successful yo-yo with a ball bearing.
In yo-yos with ball bearings, the bearings greatly reduce rubbing (friction) when the yo-yo spins. This means the yo-yo can spin for much longer! Yo-yo players used this new ability to create many new and complex tricks that were not possible before.
Today, there are many new types of ball bearings. Some have a curved shape to stop the string from rubbing the sides of the yo-yo. This helps with tricky string moves. Some very fancy bearings even use special materials like ceramic composites or even ruby to make them spin even smoother.
Modern Yo-Yo Play and Competitions
The time after the yo-yo became super popular in the late 1990s is called the "modern" era of yo-yo. In this era, yo-yo tricks became much more complex and skilled. Also, many different yo-yo designs were made for specific types of play. This happened because of the ball-bearing technology, which let yo-yos spin for a very long time.
This, along with a trick called the "bind" and "unresponsive yo-yoing," gave players huge freedom. They could create countless new yo-yo tricks and ways to play.
Because of these changes, new yo-yo competitions appeared. These contests were made for the modern style of yo-yo play. (For example, the World Yo-Yo Contest.) Outside of competitions, yo-yo players often share videos of their tricks online. A popular place to do this is on Instagram, using the hashtag "#trickcircle." Some yo-yo players have even become famous outside the yo-yo community. They go viral on TikTok, get many followers on YouTube, or appear on TV shows.
How a Yo-Yo Works: The Physics Behind the Fun
When you first let go of a yo-yo, gravity and your throw give it energy to move down. As the string unwinds, much of this energy changes into spinning energy. This makes the yo-yo spin very fast. As the yo-yo unwinds downwards, it also uses energy from its height to keep spinning and come back up to your hand.
The yo-yo keeps spinning in the same direction the whole time. So, when it comes back up, the string winds up in the opposite direction. If the string is just looped around the yo-yo's axle, there might not be enough rubbing (friction) to make it wind up. In this case, the yo-yo will keep spinning in the loop at the end of the string. This is called "sleeping." It will slow down a little, but it won't come back up.
However, if you gently pull your hand up, or lower your hand slightly, the string will get a little loose. This allows it to start winding around the axle. This increases the friction, making the yo-yo catch and wind up the string. Then, it returns to your hand!
Some yo-yos have special parts to control the string tension. Others have adjustable parts to make them work in different ways.
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