Escalator Spin
Added 14 years ago by Mellow • Updated about a year ago by James
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Tags: escalopter photo meme irl stopmotion animated gif youtube centripetal force
About
Escalator Spin (also known as "Escalopter") is a series of YouTube videos featuring individuals lying down in between two escalator rails moving in opposite direction, which results in perpetual rotation of the subject caused by centripetal force and friction against the rubber surface. This phenomenon is not to be confused with Asiacopter, a stop-motion GIF series that began on YTMND in July 2005.
Origin
Early examples of "Escalator Spin" videos began to surface on YouTube[1] sometime in July 2006. But, as one can see from the view counts and other statistics, these videos attracted relatively low viewcounts (less than 50,000 views for the most-viewed instance).
Spread
Then on June 18th, 2008, a video clip titled "Pretty blond girl spinning on an escalator" was posted on Bofunk.com.[2] The watermarked video was then subsequently featured on Youtube:
The attractive-looking girl's escalator spinning video drew mass appeal from the YouTube audience as well as other blogs and video-sharing communities, such as Gizmodo[3], I-am-Bored[4] and Videosift.[5] The videos even spawned some GIF derivatives on YTMND.[6]
Escalopter Videos in Germany
The mindless pastime eventually became an international phenomenon, drawing participation from YouTubers in Europe and Asia as well. In October 2008, a German YouTuber madassk[7] created a single topic blog for sharing Escalator Spin videos under the domain name of Escalopter.com.[8] Some days later, the first Urban Dictionary[9] definition for the term "Escalopter" was registered:
The novel activity executed on an escalator, whereby subject lies rigid with mid to lower back touching both handrails moving in opposing directions, and spinning slowly around in place.
How-To Video
Centripetal Force & Uniform Circular Motion
diagram illustrating how centripetal force works
In physics, the mechanism behind "Escalator Spinning" can be explained in terms of centripetal force and uniform circular motion. Based on Issac Newton's 2nd Law, centripetal force[10] is a force that makes a body follow a curved path, directed inward towards the center of curvature. Applying this center-oriented force along with surface friction, one can reach a state of uniform circular motion[11], during which the body traverses a circular path at a constant speed.
diagram illustrating how centrifugal force works
However, there's always a reason to be careful in attempting "Escalator Spin." This centripetal force that keeps the body spinning in circular motion also comes with a treacherous counterpart that may throw the subject off-rails instantly, which is known as "reactive centrifugal force."
YouTube Videos
External References
[1] YouTube – Search Results for Escalator Spin
[2] BoFunk – Chick Spinning on Escalator Railing
[3] Gizmodo – Girl Spins on Escalator Thanks to Physics or Magic,
[4] I-am-Bored – Girl Spinning on Escalator Railing
[5] Videosift – Girl spins on escalator
[6] YTMND – Spin Like a Record.
[7] YouTube – Madassk's User Profile
[8] Escalopter.com – Escalopter
[9] Urban Dictionary – Definition of Escalopter
[10] Wikipedia – Centripetal Force
[11] Wikipedia – Uniform Circular Motion
[12] Wikipedia – Reactive Centrifugal Force.
Entry Editors ( 7 )
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Comments ( 45 )
i thought there was only one vid of this…
i was wrong
Needs work, but it seems interesting…
looks fun
epic quantity of videos
want to be making one of these
+1 work
also confirm
LOLZ
Keep up the good work
Sauce plz!
+1work
Very nice research and clean-up done, guys! :3
I'm so grateful for all your help!
I think I saw this on the news or something a while back. +1 confirm
wat is this I don't even…
+1 confirm
Definite meme, I'm only worried that it's too IRL.
+1 confirm anyway
Think of it as the Lying Down Game…
with escalators!
Jack Candle:
The meme here doesn't lie down in the practice only, but in the fact that people, influenced by the initial Youtube starter, got to record themselve doing the move, and post it to Youtube.
As Mellow said, it's a lying down game with escalators.
I thought this was called "Escalopter"
very well done.
+1 confirm.
I need to do this as soon as possible. And then film it. And then be awesome.
+1 Confirmed
BTW this stunt's been around for years. A friend did it at a mall back in the 80's.
This is essentially the same principle used in the famous OK Go On Treadmills video – putting yourself on two conveyor belts going in opposite directions will make you spin.
The music "You spin me right round" or the LeekSpin song would fit in these
It's at the bottom of the Origin section.
And it does fit pretty well.
This isn't a meme! Memes are internet jokes. This is a real life activity people probably do only once. Fun this first time, gets old quick.
I love it, but is it really a meme? Does it have a variety of mutations? Is it well known throughout internet culture?
EPIC! I wish there were more escalators where I live.
+1 confirm. Totally original, in my opinion.
I believe the explanation at the bottom about centripetal is incorrect. Escalator spin is all about torque. A centripetal force is a force directed towards the center of a circular path. However, in this case the person on the escalator is not moving in a circular path, and the the force from the escalator is not directed towards the center. In this case the persons upper and lower body are pivoting around the center of their body and the escalator is providing two equal torques tangent to the persons rotation.
Not how Centripetal force works. HURP DERP
But meme none the less
Ladies, when anyone asks you to go spin on an Escalade, be careful what they actually mean.
+1 Deadpool, there don't appear to be many derivatives of this… not that popular on the internet apparently; it's interesting, but not a meme
spin=win
+1 confirm.
Seems like something I would do if there was no such thing as death, injury, and security guards. xD
20% cooler than planking
i totally want to do this lol.
I'm not going to look into if the explanation is correct or not (I just saw the explanation-y stuff), I do think that it is an interesting little bit to include in the article
This could be considered pro planking
Oh man, this sounds so fun.
SCIENCE BITCHES
You spin me right round baby…
right round…
like a record baby…
Physics at work.
"The other day the lab boys showed me some tapes about people lying down in unusual public spaces and they said that this phenomenon became really popular in the whole world. So I decided to improve it with science and I invented a new device I called "escalator" which in a few words is a moving staircase. So I put it next to another one escalator moving the stairs in the opposite direction and for some reason who planks on it, starts spinning. Cave Johnson we're done here."
xvise66, did you intend the work pun? (Work = F*d*cos(theta))
So weird and random, yet still so much better than planking. Definitely hope to try this sometime :D
Planking + Scalator Rails = this shit
Fucking Escalators how do they work
Escolopter-ing!!! It's planking but 100% more rotations!!! :D
Now I want to try this.
I'd say Babaganoosh seems right, it quite what I was thinking, and why I've never tried this before… it's easy to screw up.
This song came to mind when I saw this:
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