Edit: I found out after uploading that the Lego model is the creation of a KZfaqr! Check out their channel: kzfaq.info Is there anything you *can't* explain with a 2D model? The sponsor is Skillshare: The first 1000 people to use this link will get a free trial of Premium Membership: skl.sh/stevemould01211

Much like myself, it is being held up entirely by stress.

A third cable makes the table stable!

I think this gets needlessly overcomplicated which is why people get confused despite how simple it is. The middle one holds it up and supports the weight. The outer ones stop it from tipping in either direction. This creates a stable equilibrium.

This concept would be so cool to apply to earthquake technology in buildings. Super stable along the y-axis, but there’s motion in the x and z axises. Tho I wounded if the concept would break down at a larger scale.

This makes perfect sense to my brain, but it still confuses my eyes.

A cool example of tensegrity: bicycle wheels. The spokes are all in tension, meaning they can all be lightweight wires.

Tensegrity structures are magical for many because we are so "matter" driven. matter like rods and beams can be seen and appear solid. Forces cables etc are not so obvious but always present. the anatomy reference was spot on. Your analysis was incisive and consice. never have see the 2d analysis until now. Thank you for your work on this.

I was absolutely not expecting to see my hometown in this video! Brisbane's Kurilpa bridge is pretty unique. I had no idea it was built with tensegrity.

I want to make enough to replace all of my chairs with giant versions of these and watch my guests freak out.

Tensegrity sructures are proof of an old quote: "any sufficiently advanced technology appears as magic"

I've always just seen it as the middle wire actually holding the top part, and the exterior wires balancing the piece

Hi Steve, really good video. I've just graduated from university for Mechanical & Materials Engineering. Though not at all relevant to my personal work, I found your video really enjoyable & stimulating, you have such a calm and relaxed way of explaining things, you're a natural teacher. Thanks!

Ha! Pretty cool to see my LEGO version of this model pop up in this video. Cheers!

Oh yes that old saying everyone remembers their mother whispering into their ear at night: "two points fixes a line, 3 points fixes a plane"

That is incredibly interesting! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video❤

WoW, very complex stuff made simple by your 2D explanation. Thank you.

My dad has been making these for years. He's got a massive one as a table in the garden that confuses the hell out of anyone that visits XD

One sentence version: The central rope carries all the weight, all the other ropes just keep it in balance by preventing it from falling to any one side.

This is insanely awesome. BRILLIANT! The object is essentially balanced from "the top" instead of "the bottom".

That was really cool to watch and learn about, cheers Steve. It's getting late in Aus currently, but I feel a bit of a binge of your content is coming up tomorrow when I wake up.

It’s kind of like a magic trick: All your attention is going to those longer outer wires/strings/chains/etc. But the actual work of holding up the structure is done by that one in the middle, which holds the upper piece so it can hang from the base. The outer wires then keep it in balance.

7:38 never in my entire life did I ever think we, as a species, would create a robotic tumbleweed.

I love the 2d models, you're a genius for figuring that out!

out of all the surprising stuff you showcased in other videos, this is one which i immiedetely just understood, probably something just "clicked" before and i understood it just from the thumbnail

This man's house would make the perfect therapy office.

Me: showing a 2D version won’t help with anything Me not even 20 seconds later: wow that makes sense now

You could create ringing percussive instruments with incredibly long sustain using something like this. and you could have them all connected by a series of tensors, as a single unit, which would allow them to interact with each other harmonically like an even more harmonically integrated harp... but percussive... Think something like singing bowls, but all integrated into each other through the harmonic series and the natural resonances of their structures travelling along the tensors, while still retaining their own voice in the system. :O like this would literally be incredible. But it would be a BITCH to tune(the tensors)and to design. EDIT: digitally controlled tensor tuning mechanism. with selectable presets :D

I saw the thumbnail and thought a sec and realized how this all works. Very creative!

3D Model: WHAT IS THIS SORCERY? 2D Model: Oh I get it 3D Model again: Its Magic 2D Model again: The rubber bands really make this easier to understand because of the visual stretching

When will the devs fix this glitch.

First time I saw a tensegrity table , it took me forever to puzzle it .. now I see the forces in action at a glance .. beautiful structure .. it’s being held in place from falling over , similar to somebody helping you up by leaning back to balance the forces .

I love engineering, thanks for the great video as usual. As a BSME I always say Free Body Diagram as a rule in statics, but this raised a lot of other great points I was unaware about those toys. 😁

Man I bet you could make a really cool musical instrument out of that tensegrity platform. Hit it like a drum and tune the wires to harmonize on a note.

Talks about Tensegrity. Sponsorship: no strings attached.

I have never seen anything like this, very cool. Thank you for sharing

The central string and curved arms stop the top and bottom plates from moving towards each other, and the outer 3 strings prevent them from moving away from each other.

ah yes: "the string wants to collapse but constant stress is keeping it up"

I'm desperate to know if it can hold a cup of tea!

Only 4 minutes of your video, and I imideatly understood the concept. Thank you!

This was very well done and educational thanks man.

this feels like one of those troll face infinite energy jokes

7:20 Why didn't my science teachers ever show us this kind of shit when they wanted us to make vessels to protect a raw egg in an egg drop?

I immediately imagined a scifi city built atop a scaled up version of this, but it would seem a bit risky as the whole structure will collapse if the central cable snaps. I supose there could be more than one center cable for redundancy and I would prably fit it with six cables along the circumference.

Another name for this principle is "dynamic tension". It's something I was taught in college, when I was studying to become a mechanical designer. In the model from the thumbnail, the shorter, central chain bears the weight of the upper piece, while the 2 longer chains act to keep the balance, and keep the upper piece from falling backwards. It's an interesting exercise in learning to see lines of force, and how they interact with each other.

"it wants to collapse but constant stress wont allow it" -some weird cool model

1st time watching your videos... thanks would be an understatement, im honored to get that wisdom knowledge and understanding all in one video.

Never heard of Tensegrity before, even though I went to Art School which included architecture! Great explanation Steve and a brilliant video. :-)

7:38 - Finally, a synthetic tumbleweed.

The way I saw tensegrity explained (that’s an entirely different explanation from Steve’s) that really made it “click” for me is that the top structure is hanging from the bottom one, and the wires around the outside stabilize it. Once I learned that things just snapped into place for me and I feel like I can understand it.

I love this guy, he always looks like he's just getting over a cold. Much love, thanks!

I like this video. I haven't watched more than a minute of it yet, but I already know how fun this guy is, so I expect this one will be as much fun as the last one, I think that one was on the different types of toilets. I got a kick out of that one! Anyway, this is why I question the 'completeness' or 'integrity' of my education: I look at that miniature table, and I understand it completely. It doesn't mystify me any more than any Escher drawing I've ever seen. It's actually incredibly simple: The wires are stretched by the aluminum that's compressed by the wires that are stretched by the aluminum that's compressed. Now, I haven't watched much of the video yet, but I KNOW that this guy is going to give a 'proper' description of the materials and forces involved, what they mean conceptually, and how they integrate into a complete, unique instance. An abstraction of the concepts he describes. A physical object. The thing we see sitting before us. I can do all that in my head easily. Almost instantly. (I was gifted with a sharp mind, I suppose I inherited it from my parents, so I don't take credit for it, I am thankful for it). But having a sharp mind doesn't mean you can easily describe or impart to others what's on your mind. I have ZERO clue how to explain what I SEE in my 'mind's eye' to ANYone else. So I envy, or admire/appreciate it when I can see someone like this fellow who **IS** capable of sharing what's inside his mind with others, to the benefit of their understanding of the world. That's why I question that business of my education. I wish I knew if I'd be able to do what he's doing if my education was somehow 'better' or more 'complete'.

The part about tensegrity in nature reminds me of something from "Structures: Or, Why Things Don't Fall Down" by J.E. Gordon. He said trees are under compression on the inside and tension on the outside. I thought that was neat.

This is one of those videos I almost clicked on for a couple weeks and then finally watched. Glad I did. Not an optical illusion. The cables actually hold the structure together. Cool.

The structure at 9:00 is the most intriguing to me. Only uses one supporting cable. I understand how it works (I think) but it still blows my mind.

I've never paused a video to consider if three different rubber bands were in compression or in tension before. And I loved it!!

I always thought of it as the center cable holds the upper plate up, while the other three stabilise it.

I've seen quite a few examples of this recently but no-one ever mentions wire spoked wheels, literally the original example. For years as a child I thought they were made of a special material that could hold my weight until a teacher said it is the ones at the top stopping you fall, not the ones on the bottom holding you up.

So just how the 2-D tensegrity structure was unstable in 3 dimensions, would that make a 3-D tensegrity structure unstable in 4 spacial dimensions? What would a 4-D tensegrity structure even look like?

That was absolutely helpful thank you. I was blowing my mind until I saw this.

Me: *knows how tensegrity works* Steve: *makes a video explaining tensegrity* Also me: *watches the video anyway because it's Steve*

4:31 That is a very old saying indeed

Great explanation! Thank you!

I love these too much. When i forgot the name for them i was so sad but now i know again!!!

"That's my secret, cap. I'm always stressed."

Funny that this same lego model from JK Extras was recommended to me from youtube about an hour ago. KZfaq must have been using your private video in it's algo deciding what I might want to see...

Every time yt suggests one of your vids i press play. Hats off 2 u sir! 🥰

Great vid - thanks for sharing!

Have you guys noticed how strange the URL of this video is? "0onncd0_0-o" It even has an emoji "surprised" face in it.

We own that exact baby toy. I love playing with that thing. Oh, and our Daughter does too I guess.

Became very obvious as soon as you showed the 2D version, thank you, great video.

Never heard of tensegrity until this video. Fascinating!

Steve, you inspired me to create my own tensegrity model in my hobby machine shop. I used guitar strings and guitar string tuners to adjust tension on the three corners. The outside strings were .036" guitar strings and the center was .046". The heavier center string makes a higher pitch than the thinner outside strings when you "pluck" them. Opposite of what they would do on a guitar. That supports the assumption that each outside string carries 1/3 of the load of the center (ignoring the weight of the top half of the structure). My model turned out great and gets many comments. Keep the videos coming , l always look forward to your new releases.

It really took me a while to realise the middle string is pulling the top part up. It is so confusing xD

Never knew about this. Very cool!

In a tensegrity structure, the tension elements (typically cables or wires) are in a state of continuous tension, while the compression elements (typically struts or rods) are in a state of continuous compression. The tension elements pull the compression elements towards each other, while the compression elements push back against the tension elements, creating a balance of forces that results in a stable structure

I'm a structural engineer. This is my work. I still watched because it's Steve.

5:10 Come on, come on, get down with the stiffness! Madness has now come over me.

Explain as much as you want, thats magic

At 8:59 or so, if he looks at anyone and just says “You really like me” with that exact look on his face - like it or not, you _WILL_ end up liking this man very, very much.

"By changing the length of the cables in tension, you can actually move the structure around robotically" *Structure rolls down the hill*

Whoa! That is one of the coolest things I've seen.

I think that was both neat and informative.

Website: Stirling engines *Sells table*

Why do I feel the need to make a coffee table using this now

I remember when I first saw these I was intrigued. The way I always understood it is the centre cable is folding the weight and the other wires are like anchor points keeping it stable.

It would be fun to have a bridge like this.

I just love these videos. Teaching novice how fun engineering is without Statics, Dynamics, Calculus, Diff Eq, Strengths of Materials, Materials Science, years of learning and sleepless nights for 4-5 years of study. Good times!!!!

I had never seen tensegrity structures before and I thank you for bringing it to my attention. That being said, although I understand these structures on an intellectual level, just looking at them makes me instinctually angry because it feels like someone found a loophole in physics.

Finally! A random youtube recommendation that I learned something from. Thank you for the video it was quite informative and answers the questions i'd wondered about how these structures/designs worked.

I made the rod & string tensegrity model many years ago. Afterwards, I discovered that many biological cells use the same principal to enable them to expand or contract their outer membrane to accommodate more or less liquid inside them. Fascinating video Thank you.

This really is the absolute best of youtube.

If they do not call that robot a "rolly pulley" I am going to have a rage induced stroke.

it's 3am here in my country and youtube recommended something THAT I REALLY CURIOUS ABOUT. amazin

oohhh I've been over that bridge... it's nice seeing my home town being recognised :D

thanks STEEEEEVE! keep doing videos!

This looks so fake! Even i understand how it works, my brain still says, no way this is real and functional.

People still can't grasp this, imagine when you tell them that bike's spokes are also in tension and not compression

I had to do so many of these in statics and dynamics class that I can’t help it. I caught myself analyzing the stresses on the roof trusses at an off site meeting last year out of boredom.

I love the lander idea