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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, and today it's my turn to do the same. So when you throw it,
you hold it on the side like this, and then when you throw it you spin it. You 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? - Yes. - Do you think you can do this?
- Yes. - OK here we go. Ready? Watch. 3..2..1..
Did that work? - Yeah
OK. ... What just happened?
- Skip. - Yep. High five.
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.
So now we've got four variables. The first one is the velocity of the rock. 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 twenty degrees with respect to the surface of the water.
Scientists in France determined that that is the optimum angle at which a rock will keep
skipping, so keep that at twenty degrees, not twenty-five, not fifteen, as best you can
to twenty. OK 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 because if you get much higher
than forty-five it's impossible for it to skip. So you want to keep it down so it'll skim.
And 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 nutates
and dip into the water because the angle of attack is all wrong. Angle of attack twenty,
and...
Alright it's about eight. My personal best is twelve so that's pretty good. You've done that a time or
two haven't you? - It's the third time today. - [laugh] You're living right.
Alright, so I asked you guys to send me postcards because I'm
covering a room in my house that we're adding onto. Basically we closed a patio in.
And several of you sent postcards and 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. T.S.Davis
from Austin Texas. Saywen Wells. Saywen must be like three or four.
That's pretty awesome. Alberto from Spain. My first one. Mr Coma sent me
one, a fossil. Another one from Spain. A fossil? No way!
Oh that's right, a fossil. - I found it.
- A fossil, very good. See if you can skip it. I've never skipped a fossil.
1.. 2.. Fossils are not good at it.
Luke sent one from London. He's not in London now. 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.
- Go skip rocks. You're supposed to be learning how to skip rocks.
Max sent me a Giblonski diagram. Giblonski? Giblowski?
[Splash] Hey! You're getting wet! No, no. Go skip rocks. Don't throw big ones.
Do you understand? - Yes sir. - OK. This is by far my favorite.
Sequoia National Park California. However this is from
1939. Howdy y'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 fathers day.
Thank you. I really appreciate that Andy. I will not
put a staple through this I promise. Logan from Pensacola.
Axel from the Netherlands. Mary Elizabeth from New York.
That's pretty awesome. This is a gator from Ty. Pasan from Atlanta.
Cliff and Lily sent me a really big post card from Nebraska. Nathan says
Hay. [laugh] This is Casha from southern California and she says here's to
your postcard wall. So this is Jonathan. He went to Peru after he saw the macaw 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 JV.
He sent me a dinosaur. OK James from Minnesota are you near Lake Wobegon?
Kal or Kale, I don't know how to say it, excuse me, from Sweden.
He stop. He 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! You're supposed to be skipping
rocks, there's a test later. This is Jack,
or Jaques 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 the address is there
I still need postcards, cause I've got to cover this whole room. - We need some more postcards.
I do not want to paint up there. - So if you want to see how I'm doing on the postcard project
check out the second channel Funner 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.