How do yo-yos work?

Question

Never got to actually proper use one, saw one earlier and remembered that I don’t know how to use one.

So, how do they work? It just, makes zero sense to me

In: Physics

Answer 1

The string the yo-yo is actually twice as long as it looks. It is folded in half and twisted back on itself. This forms a small loop at the end of the string.

When you throw the yo-yo, the unwinding of the string makes the yo-yo spin. The shaft that connects the two halves of the yo-yo together sits in the loop mentioned above. The spinning of the shaft and sitting in the end of the loop is what keeps it from coming back up right away.

Higher quality yo-yos actually have a small bearing around the central shaft. The bearing lets the shaft spin while the outside of the bearing either doesn’t spin or spins much more slowly.

The yo-yo comes back up when the string starts to wind back around the center shaft of the yo-yo.