Skipping Stones and Mailing Postcards- Smarter Every Day 88

Hey, it's me Destin! Welcome back to Smarter Every Day.

So, if you think about it, for thousands of years, people have verbally skipped along or passed down through generations the art of skipping stones. Today, it's my turn to do the same. When you throw it, you hold it on the side like this, and then when you throw it, you spin it.

Remember how you didn't think you could skip, and then I taught you how? But now you can, right? Are you a good skipper? Do you think you can do this? Okay, here we go. Ready? Watch! Three, two, one... did that work?

Okay, what just happened? Yep, we're gonna have to wait a little bit before you learn, buddy. So, obviously, the shape is important. You want something wide and flat. Now we've got four variables. The first one is the velocity of the rod. We want to keep it as fast as possible so kinetic energy stays in the system.

The second one is the angle of attack. You want that rock to be 20 degrees with respect to the surface of the water. Scientists determined that this is the optimum angle at which a rock will keep skipping. So keep that at 20 degrees— not 25, not 15, as best you can, to 20.

Okay, the third one is the angle of impact of the rock to the water. You want to keep it as low as possible so it'll skim along the surface. If you get much higher than 45 degrees, it's impossible for it to skip. So, you want to keep it down so it'll skim.

The last variable is the rotational velocity. You want to spin it as fast as you can; that way, it acts like a gyroscope and it doesn't dip down when it rotates and dip into the water because the angle of attack is all wrong. Angle of attack, 20. Alright, it's about eight. My personal best is 12, so that's pretty good. You've done that a time or two, haven't you? You're living right.

Alright, I asked you guys to send me postcards because I'm covering a room in my house that we're adding on to. Basically, we closed a patio in, and several of you sent postcards. I'm very, very excited about it to the point where I've got to show you. So, I'm gonna show you who all sent me postcards.

TS Davis from Austin, Texas! Say, "Wells!" Say, "One must be like three or four!" That's pretty awesome. Alberto from Spain! My first one! Mister Comer sent me one. Another one from Spain— a fossil! No way! Oh, it's right! A fossil! Look at that! I found it! A fossil! Very good! See if you can skip it. I've never skipped a fossil before!

Luke sent one from London— he's not in London though; Paris from Canada! Dory sent me a fractal from California. Roman, his wife, and two cats sent me this one. He walks there! Diego from Maryland. Michael sent me an Einstein. Jake from Port Townsend. This one's from Seattle! I love it! It says, "Hi, Smarter Every Day! I like your videos."

This is John— he's got a daughter named Sadie! Say, "Hey!" Hey! Skip rocks! You're supposed to be like a brother! Max sent me a Jablonski diagram. Jablonski! Dabrowski book! Hey! No, nope! Go skip rocks. Don't throw big ones! Do you understand?

Okay, this is by far my favorite— Sequoia National Park, California! However, this is from 1939. How do you all found a stack of these in a box after my dad passed away? I've been watching your channel since you gave your dad a chicken for Father's Day. Thank you! I really appreciate that, Andy! I will not put a staple through this! I promise!

No again— from Pensacola, Axl from the Netherlands, Mary Elizabeth from New York! That's pretty awesome! This is a gator from Ty, my son from Atlanta. Cliff and Lily sent me a really big postcard from Nebraska! Nathan says, "Hey, this is Kathy from Southern California." And she says, "Here's to your postcard wall!"

So this is Jonathan— he went to Peru after he saw the McCall video. Claire from Boston— she's from Chicago originally. She sent two, and she gets the award for the most beautiful handwriting! It's insanity; it's very, very good!

This is Javi— sent me a dinosaur! Ellison, okay! James from Minnesota! Are you near like Wobegon? Cal? I don’t know how to say it! Excuse me, from Sweden! Hey! Stop! You made this himself! It's kind of similar to what we're doing right now! That's pretty cool! He made it at cardsinthepost.com. That's pretty smart!

So if you don't have a postcard, you make your own! And this is from Beaumont— he's in the UK! It's pretty cool! Hey! I'm making a video skipping rocks! There's a test later!

This is Jack from Paris! That's a pretty one! Very nice! He says some very nice things on the back. I'm going to staple them up here, but clearly we have nowhere near enough postcards! So please send me more! I'll leave the address in the video description. As long as these addresses are there, I still need postcards!

I've got to cover this whole room! We need two more! Can skirt! I do not want paint up there! So if you want to see how I'm doing on the postcard project, check out the second channel, Smarter Every Day! I'll keep it up to date with info. Thank you very much for your support. It means a lot! I appreciate it. Have a good one!