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My Rock, Paper, Scissors Robot Never Loses (+9 Other Inventions)

0h 19m video Published Nov 2, 2024 Transcribed Jul 22, 2026 M Mark Rober
Beginner 10 min read For: General audience interested in science and inventions, suitable for all ages.
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This video presents a countdown of ten impressive inventions, ranging from a rock-paper-scissors robot to an infinite slinky staircase, with detailed explanations of the science behind each one. The host combines entertainment with education, breaking down concepts like ball bearings, laminar flow, and binary counting.

[00:00]
Infinite Slinky Staircase

An escalator-like mechanism that allows a slinky to descend stairs indefinitely, using a motor and feedback loop to keep it centered.

[00:25]
Screaming Chicken Heads

A choir of 22 chicken head noisemakers that produce sound when air is forced through them, similar to a kazoo or party blower.

[01:11]
Deflagration Tube

A device that creates a slow-moving wave of fire through tubes, culminating in a small explosion when the flame reaches the end.

[02:07]
Room Temperature Ice Rink

A surface made of ball bearings that mimics ice, allowing skating with almost no friction, and behaves like water particles in simulations.

[05:09]
Single Sheet Foldable Chair

A chair made from one sheet of material with a specific pattern, demonstrating that solid materials can be folded into functional objects.

[06:08]
Stroboscopic Water Illusion

Using a subwoofer vibrating water at 30 Hz and a camera recording at 30 fps to create a frozen wave illusion; changing frequency makes the wave appear to move.

[08:27]
Laminar Flow Fountain

A simple setup with a hose and drill to create laminar flow, which looks smooth and clear, unlike turbulent flow.

[09:08]
Nerf Gun Cleanup Robot

A robot that picks up Nerf darts using an acorn picker upper attachment, saving time on cleanup.

[10:02]
Simon Game Robot

A robot that plays the Simon memory game perfectly by using a webcam to detect lights and pressing pads with drumsticks.

[12:51]
Rock Paper Scissors Robot

A robot named Rocky that uses an IR hand motion detector to predict the player's move and throws the winning shape, achieving a high win rate.

The video showcases a variety of creative inventions, each with a scientific principle behind it, encouraging viewers to explore engineering and inventing through resources like CrunchLabs.

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"The title promises a never-losing robot and other inventions, and the video delivers exactly that with detailed explanations."

Mentioned in this Video

Study Flashcards (5)

What is the principle behind ball bearings?

easy Click to reveal answer

Ball bearings reduce friction by using small balls between two surfaces, allowing them to slide relative to each other with minimal resistance.

03:42

How does the stroboscopic water illusion work?

medium Click to reveal answer

A subwoofer vibrates water at 30 Hz, and a camera recording at 30 fps captures each vibration at the same point, making the wave appear frozen.

06:08

What is the difference between laminar flow and the stroboscopic effect?

medium Click to reveal answer

Laminar flow is smooth and predictable in real-time, while the stroboscopic effect is an illusion created by matching frame rate with vibration frequency.

08:00

Why is 32 the number of levels in the Simon game?

hard Click to reveal answer

32 is the highest number that can be counted in binary using 5 bits, and early memory chips stored bits in multiples of 8.

11:20

What strategy does the rock-paper-scissors robot use to win?

medium Click to reveal answer

The robot uses an IR hand motion detector to sense the player's hand movement and then throws the winning shape.

14:17

💡 Key Takeaways

📊

Ball Bearing Explanation

Clear explanation of how ball bearings reduce friction, applicable to many mechanical systems.

03:42
🔧

Stroboscopic Illusion

Demonstrates a clever use of frequency matching to create visual illusions.

06:08
💡

Binary and Simon Game

Connects a classic game to binary counting, showing practical limits of early memory.

11:20
🔧

Rocky Robot Strategy

Illustrates how predictive algorithms can be used in game-playing robots.

14:17

✂️ Creator Tools: Viral Hooks

AI-generated clip ideas for Shorts based on the transcript

Screaming Chicken Heads: Kazoo Hack

40s

The bizarre and humorous concept of a choir of screaming chicken heads is highly shareable and sparks curiosity.

▶ Play Clip

Room Temperature Ice Rink: Frictionless

45s

The visually striking and counterintuitive idea of skating on a frictionless surface made of BBs is both educational and mesmerizing.

▶ Play Clip

Simon Says Robot: Unbeatable Memory

45s

The challenge of a robot mastering a classic memory game taps into nostalgia and the fascination with AI beating humans.

▶ Play Clip

Rock Paper Scissors Robot: Pattern Hack

50s

The psychological strategy behind winning at rock-paper-scissors combined with a robot that never loses is both controversial and intriguing.

▶ Play Clip

Infinite Slinky Staircase: 48 Hours

50s

The satisfying and seemingly endless motion of a slinky descending stairs for days is visually captivating and mind-boggling.

▶ Play Clip

[00:00] This is an infinite slinky staircase that can run for days. Today we're not only going to countdown ten of the coolest things

[00:12] But we’re going to also break down the science of how they work, Starting off at number ten, Typically, you'll have something like this

[00:25] a choir of 22 screaming chicken heads. after you apply a little pressure

[00:37] it will yield amazing results. We just need to take a look inside. It's basically just a kazoo or one of those party blowers.

[00:52] it expands back to its original shape, and make that terrible, terrible noise. pressurized at 100 p.s.i, then you turn this valve...

[01:11] It’s lunchtime! securing you a trip out to CrunchLabs

[01:26] will show off his fancy deflagration tube. creates a slow moving wave of fire that spreads because of heat. And once it's almost done tracing all through the tubes,

[01:42] with the oxygen, making a small explosion. And since the bottle is in the way of the quickly expanding gas, Now that’s only the first two

[01:55] But number eight is where things really start to get interesting. it swallows you and then knock them over

[02:07] You basically make a room temperature ice rink Isn’t it trippy?? as you can see here, it’s almost completely frictionless

[02:19] Which means it should be perfect for skating

[02:34] And while surfing, skating, and bowling it was ultimately so hard for us to keep our footing We decided to call in a Pro

[02:50] And she’s a ten-year-old skateboard competition winning legend *snort giggle*

[03:02] But, could she pull off the impossible jump?

[03:15] Now, what makes Anna so great Can I still land it or no?

[03:27] so before she take her final shot at nailing this trick Because intuitively, Because any given BB rolls smoothly on the ground

[03:42] so when you have hundreds of these underneath you of perfect wheels to slide you in any direction. and then take your foot and also replace it with metal,

[03:57] surface to itself like this, and the bottom surface to itself Well, now they'll still slide relative to each other. And this is exactly how ball bearings work.

[04:10] They're in your bike, where the wheels connect with the axles. and a bunch of other tools

[04:22] where smooth low-friction is required Another really cool thing we discovered they almost behave like water would, even though they're totally dry.

[04:36] because when computers have to simulate water they break it down into particles like this. 1 to 1 match for a bunch of actual physical BBs, they are governed

[04:50] Now back to Anna, who didn’t dissapoint

[05:09] Now that we’d all survived number 8 But what makes them really cool is they're made from one single sheet then you give it a paint job.

[05:25] very specific pattern. and then fold it into an actual functional chair. wood as foldable and bendy, but this is another example

[05:39] when you could take advantage of the fact that even solid And just like with the world's smallest Nerf gun, and there's a 3D printable file in the video description

[05:55] if you want to assemble your own mini single part foldable chair. at your end of summer block party. and it's connected to a subwoofer speaker.

[06:08] up and down 30 times per second, But then if you set your phone camera it makes the motion virtually undetectable

[06:22] your camera is only taking pictures when the wave is at So when you play it back, it looks like it's a frozen wave of water.

[06:34] frequency to say, 31Hz or 31 times per second, is just a little further forward, and of course reducing the frequency

[06:50] this can make you look like an absolute wizard. Theoretically, if you had a second speaker the combination should give you a spiral.

[07:04] Now all that's left is to just play a sick beat to celebrate the W.

[07:33] is you can make a very simple version of this yourself. and a bit then secure the hose

[07:46] you’ll find the natural vibrations of the spinning drill near the magical 30 times per second rate, with the trigger will cause the wave

[08:00] Now, a lot of people confuse what you're seeing here Because this is laminar flow. in a predictable pattern

[08:15] The big difference is what you see, what the speaker is because the frame rate matches with the wiggle rate, but with laminar flow it looks cool even real-time with your own eyes.

[08:27] you can make a simple version of this yourself too. tape a tic-tac-toe square like this even with these really simple materials

[08:40] The next two inventions are pretty quick and simple. starting first at number five we place a platinum ticket inside one CrunchLabs Build Box.

[08:54] You're coming out here to CrunchLabs in person. we'll have a very fun, epic Nerf gun battle.

[09:08] What's not so fun, however, is the epic cleanup required afterwards. when you could just invent a robot to do it for you? of one of these acorn picker uppers and 3D printing an attachment

[09:21] So with only the occasional empty working on coming up with other ideas myself and CrunchLabs have received

[09:34] to put them on display in the front lobby in a trophy case. So the middle ground is if you stand right here it uses a 6 to 1 mechanical advantage pully system

[09:48] And now, if you just so happen to look up And that brings us to the final three, starting with Simon, one of the most beloved games of my childhood.

[10:02] and then you just have to repeat it back by pressing the same pad. another pad to the pattern, which just not so bad at first, but then it starts to add more and more and get faster and faster.

[10:19] I think the furthest I ever me as a kid was like level 13. which means I have a very particular set of skills. skills that make me a nightmare for games like these.

[10:37] from this incredible cockroach trap, each with their own drumstick, So these can be our pad smashers, but now they need to know

[10:53] For that, we've just got a simple webcam here and it ignores everything in the camera rectangular portions where the bulbs are.

[11:06] in any one of those rectangles, you know, So once you store those pad hits in memory to be played back Like, violently easy

[11:20] is get through all 32 levels of Simon and while 32 seems like a random number of levels, there’s actually a reason for it bits were expensive.

[11:35] and the number 32 is the exact highest number you can count to in Binary we’re half way there, so while my pad smashing robot just like all the things you've seen in this video so far,

[11:51] you can basically make whatever you can dream up. because for kids we've got Build Box

[12:07] they get delivered right to your door where Plus all the fundamental tools you need in your toolkit to start creating your own projects and inventions.

[12:22] So this holiday season if you or someone you love the really fun and rewarding hobby of making stuff Just scan this QR code or head to Crunchlabs.com

[12:38] feels like a moment... I’m happy to say

[12:51] I finally beat this dumb game yellow His name is Rocky, and he's a robot who's really, really good

[13:06] But before I show you just how good if you don't happen playing against other humans to win 75% of the time,

[13:19] games of rock, paper, scissors and discovered a pattern. they're slightly more likely to stay with their previous choice, to the next in line of rock, paper, scissors.

[13:34] If you win, go to the next one in the line in the order of Rock, Paper, scissors.. And if you beat them with paper, play scissors next So if lose with scissors, play paper, if you lose with paper, play Rock

[13:51] Now of course, that doesn't mean you'll win every game, So if you just play best of 20, And as a man of science,

[14:04] Again, I didn't win every game, Now, as for beating Rocky. much lower.

[14:17] And that's because Rocky so he matches my movements up and down, using an IR hand motion detector

[14:30] And then once the computer knows it, tells the correct to throw the winning shape. Or I go fast.

[14:45] gets the $10,000 cash briefcase. the bullseye with the American Gladiators tennis ball cannon the bullseye with the American Gladiators tennis ball cannon

[14:59] we built the CrunchLabs over the past year. Like most good inventions, the slinky was invented by accident a stabilizing spring off the shelf and noticed

[15:13] So he and his wife decided to make a toy out of it, call it a slinky. And now, 80 years later, over 300 million have been sold. to see how many stairs in a row I could get it to climb down

[15:27] now that I'm an engineer, it was time to avenge using a treadmill tilted at just the right angle. because the landing surface was inclined like a ramp

[15:43] So to solve that issue, we tried an actual escalator and the speed was a little too slow. I could turn with a hand-crank.

[15:56] You don't normally think about it, so they're coming up below you like this upside down. And that prototype worked well because we got the stair space dialed in

[16:10] which is where these 3D printed self-centering cones came in handy the slinky would self-align Finally we got rid of the hand crank by adding a motor

[16:25] so we could get the timing dialed in just right, of the slinky sort of varies slightly over time. we made a final version that looked beautiful

[16:39] so it would run a closed feedback loop to ensure the slinky was always right in the middle of the staircase. But before the official demonstration,

[16:52] Because if you let one hang down like this and then let it go, because it's balanced between gravity stays unchanged until the wave finally propagates down

[17:09] And so without further ado, here it is. And so without further ado, here it is. these two buttons to temporarily slow down, or speed up the staircase.

[17:23] After which the sensor takes back over, to adjust itself back to the middle I'm just going to leave this running to see how much I can beat that by.

[17:41] This is now been running just over 48 hours, just over 208,000 stairs, which is just over 29,000 times more stairs than I ever got as a kid.

[17:55] So I'm calling that a W in my ongoing quest to be the favorite uncle I’ve tried quite a few things over the years

[18:09] But now I finally discovered a much easier way Or even parent a CrunchLabs Build Box subscription for the holidays

[18:25] And then we build a really fun toy together Where you learn a new engineering principal Thinking like an engineer

[18:38] Which means some day you too could be building robots your box has the chance to contain the platinum ticket Well then you’re coming out to CrunchLabs

[18:54] in really fun ways with me just head to CrunchLabs.com or use the link in the description Thanks for watching

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