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That's like when it's too cold to carry grocery bags home so you were an air tight man tutu. perfecting your choice of cabbage and half quart of vegetable oil.
I work for Decathlon and work directly with these tents. Your video definitely shone the light on the inner workings. But you solved one of the pains with folding them, by laying them on their side! I'll be happy to show off this method to the customers once spring camping season hits! Thank you!
@@mattgies Yup, science tends to do that, especially if we treat it just like Feynman: "Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it."
Nitinol wire is used to actuate surgical robotic tools because of the properties you mentioned in this video - the elasticity means it can be flexed into all sorts of weird shapes and not kink when you push on it - a really rare (and useful!) set of properties for a metal.
@@KarldorisLambley So I dunno if you know this, but people can read all the comments you’ve made on the channel… and every single one of yours is you just… nagging and pestering over nothing. Maybe it’s a sign you should just take a break from the internet, seems to be making you irritable. Or maybe that’s just how you are. Oh, but that should be obvious.😊
@KarldorisLambley Dont be a dick. Theres no reason for it. Everyone on the planet doesnt know the properties and uses of nickel titanium alloys and some people might find the fact interesting.
I was an engineer for a company that manufactured ocean sensors for the navy made with nonwoven textiles and a circular metal bands. The packing method of these devices required the fold that you were demonstrating but with one extra step which made it 5 layers of circles instead of the initial 3 and I became somewhat of an expert with this kind of folding after having to demonstrate the method to our production workers. I could probably fold that tent small enough to fit into an even smaller size bag than what it came in. Someone found a video that demonstrates that technique. th-cam.com/video/xP5o1Cikl8A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XdW3a0wFbXCI7AJE
If that would be possible it would be really nice thing, as those tents are quite chunky in transport. Any tips how to search for that 5 layer fold? :D
Once you have the 3 loop configuration, you need to pull out one of the loops (one of the outer ones I think... maybe one of the loops that do not have as much material around it.) Extending that loop will make the other 2 loops smaller.( In some cases, it can get unwieldy) once you have enough loop, you have to do a sort of twist and internal fold to create basically 2 more loops. I'm not sure if it's available on TH-cam since it's such a niche technique.
I used to work in Decathlon store and folded those tents about a hundred times and there's no explanation as to why people struggle with them from day one. There's a clear manual with color-coded buckles that you need to attach and it folds in 10-15 seconds. The only thing that might be unclear is that one of those is on the inside of the tent.
1:57 this “fun fact” has such insane consequences it’s amazing. “Two twists” being the same as “no twist” is why you can have _spin-1/2_ particles (ones you have to rotate by 720° for a “full rotation” instead of 360° like “normal”). Electrons are spin-1/2, and that gives them a particular property: spin-1/2 particles are subject to something called the _Pauli Exclusion Principle_ which states that ‘no two spin-1/2 particles can share a state’ where ‘a state’ basically means ‘all properties’. So two spin-1/2 particles can’t coexist at the same place, with the same energy, etc. At least one thing needs to be different between them. This, it turns out is _why atoms have energy levels for electrons_ - once all the possible states at one energy are used up, the next particle must be at a higher energy because otherwise two would share a state, which they can’t do! In turn, atomic energy levels are basically the core reason that chemistry exists at all. Without chemistry, you don’t have biology, and without biology we wouldn’t exist! So basically, that strange little rubberband twist thing is possible because of the same mathematics that allows the existence of basically everything macroscopic, including humans!! Isn’t reality just amazing?
As I was watching this I thought to myself that these mathematics and geometry must reflect somewhere else in the universe and influence something fundamental about reality. Then I see your comment. Reality is in fact amazing. Thanks
The word "reality" is typically used to imply the unrealism of something else. So, "Isn't the universe amazing?" would be more appropriate to use here than "Isn't reality amazing?".
You also now know how to fold a bandsaw blade for storage or shipping. The tricky bits are double folding (5 loops) longer blades and unfolding one for use without injury. Dropping the folded blade in a large space and jumping back is one technique for the latter.
Folded saw blades are some of the scariest things I've dealt with in a shop. 😂 The trick I came up with was using two substantial, and sacrificial, zip ties. I put one on each side of the bundle but kept them loose. Then, after cutting the factory straps/bands, the band saw blade tried to spring open, but holding it with gloves and having the extra protection from the zip ties gave me the moment to understand which direction it was trying to go. I then just held it with one hand in a way that it would spring away from me when I cut a zip tie and used side cutters to release it. Maybe overthinking things, but my shop is tiny and I don't have the floor space to just let it go
I really appreciate your commitment to building physical demonstration models! They are great at simplifying things to focus on the phenomenon of interest, while also retaining some of the messy inconveniences of reality that would be lost in a simulation/animation.
careful because a shoe knot that can't be untied easily tends to become a nightmare to undo if you actually need to undo it. What you want is a shoelace that has a lot of friction, but is in the "easy to unknot" condition, so it does not untie by itself easily, but never gets too tight to require a screwdriver and a lot of patience to untie.
The weak knot is a so called "granny knot" and the strong knot is a square or reef knot. My favorite technique to tie your shoelaces in a proper square knot is the so called "Ian knot". Look it up!
@@StefanoBorini The version Steve shows is just a standard square knot and is slipped. It's not difficult to untie at all. It's certainly easier to untie than double knotting, while holding better than a granny knot.
The instructions on Steve’s tent are actually remarkably clear and detailed. The ones on the version I’ve used are basically: 1. Bring these bits together. 2. Perform magic. 3. Profit!
Since you're using Quechua pop up tents: they now fold them differently, you actually start inside the tent and kinda fold it inside out, they added clips to help you with the process. During College I worked as a side job in Decathlon and every now-and-then a person would come in with a unfolded tent which they had bought but were unable to fold back in. XD
The instructions for those tents are usually very unclear. I have a tent like this and needed a youtube video to find out how it works. Once you know it is easy.
0:18 "I always find that I'm better at something if I can figure out how it works and why it was made to work that way." Oh man! That's exactly my "problem" too. I'm sure it's why I've always struggled with math and have perhaps been perceived as slow at learning by some. It wasn't until only a few years ago when I discovered one of the first math videos on TH-cam where someone visually dissected pythagorean theorem, almost like a tear-down of an appliance, and suddenly I got the math and what it did. This is why you're one of my favorite channels, because you deconstruct and/or analogize in a way that very few educators can. Not just explaining the way something works in high level language and abstraction, but in a way that reveals the hidden wires inside the tent and how they work in physical real space. Your water channel experiments (or whatever those are called) are some of the most intuitive and eye opening of all your videos. With that said, people should check out Alpha Phoenix's channel too, if you don't already, he did some water channel experiments on there to better explain advanced electrical concepts, and they are really good, in the way Steve's videos are so good.
Circular handheld reflectors used on film sets utilise the precise same geometry so you can have a giant reflector that neatly folds up into a small circle for easy storage. Ngl it is standard practise to casually hand them to new assistances on set and ask them to just put them away. Then you go for a cup of coffee and snigger whilst they get completely confused.
@@geckoman1011 lol but thats just a trick involving a thing that doesnt actually exist. Thats not very similar to charging an assistant with an annoying but actually real task :D
Bandsaw blades get packaged the same way as the 3-layer band, with the added fun of one edge being riddled with sharp cutting teeth 😅 Lemme tell ya, hand & finger placement when manipulating the twist is quite important.
I find this topic interesting. There is also a way to wind electrical cables that takes advantage of these twists to lay flat when coiled and to allow the cable to be laid out without twists. It's called a "roadie wrap" because this is how cables used on stages for musical performers are stowed and used on stage. Coiling involves one wrap going over-hand and the next wrap receiving an under-hand (or reverse coil). This is also how boxes of cat5 network cable are sold with these reverse twists that allow the cable to be pulled from the box without pulling it from a rotating spool.
Fascinating breakdown of the mechanics behind pop-up tents. I've always struggled with my tent, it's comforting to know there's a purpose behind the design and that I wasn't just terrible at it.
As you mentioned the pop-up tents use rods instead of bands for the frame, so is it possible that the joint of the rods allows them to spin in their axis in order to avoid twist?
A possibility. I don't know whether the rods are friction fitted into the joint or if they're free-spinning, but free-spinning would indeed allow the rod to untwist itself a bit. That said, I believe the longer the rod is, the harder it is for the entire rod to untwist itself. Then again, the longer the rod is, the longer each twist are, reducing the overall tension. And the thinner the rod is, the thinner each twist are as well, further reducing the overall tension. Overall, you don't really need to worry too much about twisting. That said, each twist massively increases the tension, so twist reduction is still desirable. It's easier to twist a long, narrow and thin metal strip (or a long and thin metal rod) than it is to twist a cube (or short and thick cylinder) of metal.
I had one of theese borrowed once for the party, i cant remember clearly when exactly, but i think i already pop it into broken state with one of the rod broken (rods were from someting resembling plastic and fiberglass). Anyway taped it for the night. In the morning i removed tape and somehow fold it in that broken state, it was rly problematic coz rods was tensioning from the bend so much it was riping fabric, so i taped it somehow in the folded broken mess. In the end i repaired it at home learning there is joint made just by tube with both ends in it. So i just added another tube on the broken place, stuffed it back in the tent and gave it back. Still work today. Anyway i think there is minimal move in the joints. Because of bend rods in straight tube generate so much friction it cant slip of. It could depend on materials. But it would need to have differently desinged joint to secure rods from sliping off, which could be problematic since there is suprisingli a lot of bending force on the joint.
At 3:03 is close up of the joint. It looks like ends of the rod are put together with another piece between them. Maybe there's a coilspring inside the bright tube in the middle.
I discovered this by myself when I was about 35 years old, but this should be taught to all children in their first year of school. And many other things too that the educational system purposely omits from schools.
I don’t know about anybody else, but this video was life changing for me. Now I can properly tie a bow. 😆 Seriously though, I’m a lefty and even after 37 years I still struggle with mirroring the world and not understanding what specifically I was struggling with until that “aha, it’s a lefty problem” moment strikes. The idea that handedness of knots matters is really helpful and explains my previously abysmal bows. So thanks! I really appreciate how you break down concepts in ways that are easy to understand. 😊
8:24 don't worry my kids do that too 😂 I got them into scratch programming after showing them my "boring" programming but I'm honestly going to get the kiwi subscription, it looks great.
Yep same here, byut hen again I taught, with the help of videos, my then 5 and then 8 year Olds the basics of atomic energy, and how fission works. Poor kids
the Kiwi crates are great but theyre not an instant and perfect fix for the "oh thats cool *walks away*" problem. I get them monthly for my nieces and half the time I end up doing 80% of the building myself while they check in once in a while to see if anything cool has happened. You still have to kind of sit them down and force them to walk through it if thats your desired outcome. Of course it doesnt have to be, it can still be fun to do most of the building yourself and let them play with the resulting toy/gadget :)
There was a 2-man tent my parents had waaaay back in the day that was a regular pole sort of tent, but the difference between it and what you can get now is that it used clips to attach the fabric to the poles, and the ones you get today you have to slide the poles through a loop in the fabric. Our tent I put up, by myself, in the dark, at the age of 12 or 14 in about five minutes.
High quality tents probably use the fabric loops because they're lighter and more compact. You wouldn't think it would matter much but when the whole 2-person tent only weighs a few pounds adding in those clips would make a pretty big difference. And if you regularly do any sort of overnight hiking trips a lightweight tent is definitely worth it. A cheaper tent used for car camping where weight doesn't matter as much can use the clips, as well as heavy fibreglass poles instead of more expensive carbon fibre poles.
The directions for my decade- old pop-up tent included turning the "U" on its side and being aware of handedness. Your explanation was much easier to understand, however
I would love Steve Mould to do a video on cord management. What is the best coiling method and why : over-under, chaotic bundle, figure 8 ? Is it different for small cords like the ones in headsets? Great content and I like your accent!
One of my friends had a routine that involved putting a pop up tent back into the bag only using their feet. It was a very neat trick that was properly appreciated by fellow jugglers / object manipulators.
Hey Steve, thanks for that little bit at the end with your kids. I have that with mine and I could never shake the idea that maybe something is wrong with me to not be good enough to excite them or maybe something is wrong with them for not getting excited about these things. This definitely shows me that it's neither and it, well, just is. Take care!
I agree. There is a lot of fabrication in videos these days - I think that's one of the things that initially earned my subscription of his channel; the fact that he didn't glitz up or over-glorify a lot of things for the camera/views.
After a camping weekend with the boys, one mate was struggling with this. I took over, never having handled a pop-up tent before, and immediately and by pure luck stumbled across the solution. I have no idea how to replicate it, and I even struggle with these one-band collapsible backgrounds. But my mates now all think I’m some sort of outdoor endboss. I’m never touching a collapsible tent in their presence again - I want to keep up that illusion.
I had a pop up tent in the 90s for boy scout camping. It was supper easy to fold up. I seem to remember it using a method kinda like the last one you showed.
4:21 Without realizing it, Steve demonstrates an aspect of string theory that has always puzzled me, namely how does a loop of string vibrate. He gives two examples!
Excellent. I remember watching this and used the three-loop method to tidy away some 'endless' van door seals during a restoration. Now the seals aren't twisted and are much more likely to be fine when refitted. So, not just for tents! Thank you.
This reminded me of those "Ideal way to store an extension cord (audio cable, etc.)" videos that I can' t seem to wrap (lol) my head around when the task comes up.
Also useful to know that if you ever need to post a bike tyre you can use the technique you showed in the first part of the video for a single loop. That way you won't kink the wire bead of the tyre.
This was really cool. It explains möbius strips very well, which also explains the magic strip of cutting a möbius strips with one or two twists into either two separate loops, one large loop or two interlocking loops. Now if you could go into depth of explaining how an irrigation drip system valve works which may help me understand how the valve works on the bathtub faucet works to divert the water from filling the bathtub to the shower head. Thanks for sharing.
This is really interesting. Related to this I work in media production. From the onset we learn how you either have to literally roll most cables to keep the from “getting” a 1/4 twist in them -or- use an “over-under” technique to compensate for a natural twist induced into the cable to prevent creating a twist (loop when the cable is run out) . I’m wondering if that’s the flip-aide of putting away the wire loop by adding a twist. You have probably experienced this issue rolling up a garden hose - depending on if you rolled it on a spool or hand coil it.
We have the same issue commercial diving. The solution I like best is to drop the cable/umbilical in a figure 8 pattern. When you're finished you use a small rope with an eye. That forms a slipknot at the top of the 8. Then the 8 is folded to make a circle and the rope passed over the bundle and back through the eye. There you can secure it with a hitch, or lift the whole lot by the rope and hitch the rope to a rail.
This video is awesome! Great job! I am totally excited about that elastic knots video! I've been looking into them ever since I saw Veritasium's video on knot theory, which got me hooked on knots in general.
The handedness of the bow is because it's a reef-knot with slip bights on both sides of the second thumbknot. If this one's in the same handedness as the first, you have a slipped granny knot, which won't hold. Now, if you continue stacking the thumb knots, you can build a stack of bight loops, making quite a fancy bow - if you do, finish off with a thumb knot, to hold it all together.
Huh, the handedness 'matching' being what causes the slipping must be why I learned to fix the slipping shoelace knot problem by doing my 'bunny ears' the other way round, rather than Steves case of doing the starting knot the other way round.
@@Xieda The twist of the cord can also impact this, of course. Usually they're braided, making the last comment immaterial, but it's always worth keeping in mind if using some kind of twine or laid light cord.
i used to have this exact tent, i wish i'd known about the laying-it-flat method ten years ago! i replaced it with one with pull cords that expand an umbrella-like frame, which is both very cool to watch, and way easier to put up and pack down
Think you so much now i fin a solution to fold my quechoua 2 sec correctly after 5 years of tension fold , i try your methode and its work 100% smooth ❤
This is really interesting and going into quite some detail for a TH-cam general-science channel video tbh. Informative and fun at the same time. 8 minutes flew like a second :D Nice work! Thank you Steve 😀
I'm wondering whether you could construct a nitinol wire tent (or whatever shape) where all wire parts are made up of two parallel fibres, each one having the shape memory of either the packed up or the expanded shape. If these wires are sufficiently heat-insulated from one another, could you run current through one of them to extend it and the other one to collapse it? I.e., is the shape memory force of nitinol strong enough to deform twice its own mass?
I feel like it wouldn't work because you need the folding to be done in steps, not all at once, and because it would make the tent heavy. Another thing is that two-second tents are very cheap, which big nitinol rods and electronics aren't.
@@RedHair651 haha I wasn't aiming to make a commercial product out of this, at least not a tent. I was just thinking about a proof of concept. So if the folding process of this tent style is too complex to do in one step, let's start with a simpler one, e.g. folding a ring into a smaller three-layered one.
@@Quickleaf Since the wires have to be insulated anyway (such that only one of them heats up at a time), I guess that wouldn't be too much of a problem
Dear Steve, I have participated in a desert rallye, where we have also brought these two-second tents, after all, who wants to fiddle with setting up a tent after a long day driving? The morning after is always a challenge, and it was most hilarious to see how many people were struggling to tame their tents - including myself. So I have spent quite a few days in the unforgiving company of these tents, and it kept me wondering, how it is possible to make the "figure-eight and fold in half" trick. According to your nitinol or rubber band comparison, this should not be possible. And indeed it WOULD NOT have been possible if the tent had been built the same way! But it is NOT built the same way, and this is what I need to point out. It is also visible in your video at 3:00 to 3:03, how the carbon fibre rods are joined together. The little metal part allows the two ends of the loops to twist, so this way it is fundamentally different from your example, and based on this, the tent loops behave differently from your model. Like allowing to cut the rubber band, and glue them together after the fold. Please, if you have the chance and you have not disposed of your destroyed tent, check this out, I hope you'll appreciate the forehead slapping moment.
That is one of the Life Changing mechanism. that when applied correctly with Fabric, It just works. once you get it's logic.,, Respect to the Inventors. Cheers
Hey Steve.... when your kids walk away after you explain something, you should take it as a compliment. Maybe you explained it so well that they just filed it away in their heads as "solved" so they had no more questions? They will never have to make a video showing that they couldn't do something..... like Daddy. 😂
Steve, I find your videos both highly entertaining and utterly fascinating. The way you present topics, combined with your engaging manner and those brilliantly fun cutaways, is absolutely superb. I’m thrilled to have stumbled upon your channel. It’s refreshing to see someone deliver content with such enthusiasm and clarity. I’ll definitely be recommending your channel to my friends, and I look forward to your future uploads. Keep up the fantastic work!
Great vid structure for keeping the attention span. The tangents actually made it more interesting, and the transitions were great. Plus I actually learned something useful.
Does anyone remember what movie these were first featured in ~25 years ago? There was a scene that showcased these that got people interested in them, it was like a special ops team arrives at winter scene and deploys these tents. At the time it was like surreal magic to see the tent thrown out as a disc and pop up, it wowed everyone.
Just to confuse the issue.....I used one of those pop up tents for camping and always folded it differently. At 2:20 when you bring the two ends together, just continue the movement, sliding them past each other towards the ground. Doing so naturally brings together the two points currently on the ground joined by the strip of fabric. They also end up sliding past each other. The whole thing collapses onto the ground as a circular package.
The shoe laces! I've tried to explain that to people: two twists in the same direction is a weak Granny knot. A twist in one direction then a twist on the opposite direction is a solid Square knot. Knots are fun.
Hey Steve the vand is just like a timber bandsaw band. But they are so big that you have to hold one end and then you raise it up and whip it down and it basically folds itself into the 3 layered form. Not to be done without gloves because those are real pointy bois those bands
This was particularly interesting and also succint. Don't let them con you into thinking that you ramble on. That was a lot of information packed into a short amount of time.
For those with an interest in all things knotty: if you have a rubber band around - best if it's at least a couple inches in diameter, and has good width across the band - retrieve it to follow along. Use the method demonstrated here (or your own if you have one you prefer) to loop the rubber band from one to three. Pass a cylindrical object through the center of the loops (a pen, pencil, or even a finger or thumb if you're sure it won't cut off circulation). Match the object used to the size of the opening of the loops such that the rubber band will hold on just enough to not slip away. When you dress the loops, you'll notice it takes the form of the idealized resting state of the ubiquitous Clove Hitch. There will be two distinct halves--on one side is three parallel bands, one on top of the next; on the other side, the business end of the hitch is perfectly laid out. Take a few moments to examine it as it is. I think this idealized model can be used to infer why the knot is so successful. Simplicity aside, Steve's exploration of the function of the tent's support rods grants insight we can use in the areas of our own lives in which the application of knots is required or proves useful--whatever they may be. It seems that this three-loop configuration is the simplest one available to resolve the problematic introduction of twists, which are inherent to the action of looping itself, and not necessarily due to the material properties of whatever is being looped..
I got one of those 2 man popup tents nearly 20 years ago, and never had a problem putting them away. The 3 man version works slightly differently, but works just as well.
The maths of this is interesting. However, as a fairly regular camper, standard tents are generally easier to deal with and more substantial in bad weather than pop-up or even worse blow-up tents. If you're a camping newbie, get a tent with a cross design (two poles in an x-shape) rather than a tunnel design (each pole is independent and parallel to the adjacent ones) - the former is largely freestanding and the latter isn't, so you'll need more hands. Also, match the coloured poles to the coloured tabs on the sleeves (where you put the pole through) and push rather than pull the poles. You also want one that is pitched outer first in case it's raining. After the first use, you can leave the inner/pods connected to the outer to make it easier to repitch - just leave a small gap with the zip or you'll create an air bubble.
I learned these tricks by unfolding and refolding fan belts for automobiles. The longer the belt, the more folds to get it into the package, yet in the end, the belt wasn't damaged or compromised.
Thank you Steve for that thought-provoking video. BTW, you should put some moisturizer on your thumbs, preferable Cetaphil or QV cream (I've no commercial interest in either company). I've dry skin and I see a fellow sufferer. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for making this video! I've picked up a few of these kinds of "tents" and I have always had trouble collapsing them back down. This really helps make sense out of the process. : - )
I have never used a foldout tent, so that trick is not guing to change my world, but I did learn how to tie my shoelaces properly which might, and that Steve Mould sounds really funny in half speed slow motion, so good video all around.
Two possible hypotheses on the second fold of the pop-up tent: 1: perhaps the twist from the first fold forces you to do the first fold in the way that minimizes the resulting total twist (of at least makes one direction easier than the other), or 2: maybe the segments are connected in a way that enables them to rotate. Of course it might depend on the specific tent which one of these (or neither) is the case.
this is exactly how I learn things! I'll be perplexed by instructions other people find simple, but if I can take something apart or otherwise learn how it works, how it's engineered, then I'm set and have learned new skills for taking the design further with my own ideas
Just in time for camping season.
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That's like when it's too cold to carry grocery bags home so you were an air tight man tutu. perfecting your choice of cabbage and half quart of vegetable oil.
1:46 use some lotion on them hands bro
Oh wow.
🚶♂💨
I did kiwico for a couple of months but only got 3/6 packages since most of them vanished in my countries post office:)
A TH-cam Short just showing the best way to put away a pop-up tent away wouild be great. I'd keep that bookmarked for emergencies :)
I work for Decathlon and work directly with these tents. Your video definitely shone the light on the inner workings.
But you solved one of the pains with folding them, by laying them on their side! I'll be happy to show off this method to the customers once spring camping season hits! Thank you!
So the video actually did change the world!
@@mattgies Yup, science tends to do that, especially if we treat it just like Feynman:
"Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it."
There was no issue with folding those, if you read the manual and clamp the red and yellow buckles together. Folded many of those back in the days
Can it be up-ed to the official folding instructions for that type of tents?
@@vasiliipopov416 you are thinking of another model of tent
Nitinol wire is used to actuate surgical robotic tools because of the properties you mentioned in this video - the elasticity means it can be flexed into all sorts of weird shapes and not kink when you push on it - a really rare (and useful!) set of properties for a metal.
thanks for sharing that obvious fact with me. nitinol isnt that special, half a meter on ebay is only a fiver.
@@KarldorisLambley So I dunno if you know this, but people can read all the comments you’ve made on the channel… and every single one of yours is you just… nagging and pestering over nothing. Maybe it’s a sign you should just take a break from the internet, seems to be making you irritable. Or maybe that’s just how you are.
Oh, but that should be obvious.😊
@@klutchxking518 perhaps the op might like to tell me night is dark. pi is 3.4 or some other obvious things?
@@KarldorisLambleyfor me, english being a germanic language is an obvious fact. doesn’t mean a lot of ppl know that.
@KarldorisLambley
Dont be a dick. Theres no reason for it.
Everyone on the planet doesnt know the properties and uses of nickel titanium alloys and some people might find the fact interesting.
I was an engineer for a company that manufactured ocean sensors for the navy made with nonwoven textiles and a circular metal bands. The packing method of these devices required the fold that you were demonstrating but with one extra step which made it 5 layers of circles instead of the initial 3 and I became somewhat of an expert with this kind of folding after having to demonstrate the method to our production workers. I could probably fold that tent small enough to fit into an even smaller size bag than what it came in.
Someone found a video that demonstrates that technique. th-cam.com/video/xP5o1Cikl8A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XdW3a0wFbXCI7AJE
If that would be possible it would be really nice thing, as those tents are quite chunky in transport. Any tips how to search for that 5 layer fold? :D
Once you have the 3 loop configuration, you need to pull out one of the loops (one of the outer ones I think... maybe one of the loops that do not have as much material around it.) Extending that loop will make the other 2 loops smaller.( In some cases, it can get unwieldy) once you have enough loop, you have to do a sort of twist and internal fold to create basically 2 more loops. I'm not sure if it's available on TH-cam since it's such a niche technique.
I bet you were known as "5 twist m.k.1015 "
@@PaulG.x 😆
@@m.k.1015 make a video and upload it on youtube
Never knew my struggle with pop-up tents was actually a lesson in topology. Camping just got a lot more scientific
(Formerly known as Twitter)
I used to work in Decathlon store and folded those tents about a hundred times and there's no explanation as to why people struggle with them from day one.
There's a clear manual with color-coded buckles that you need to attach and it folds in 10-15 seconds.
The only thing that might be unclear is that one of those is on the inside of the tent.
x, who are you
YOU ARE EVERYWHERE
@@bean_gates4975that's the user formerly known as twitter.
6:12
Steve getting some battle scars on his right hand for science and to teach us.
Brave soldier.
Cat owners: "Meh, nothing crazy there"
I expected his hands to become more and more bloody as he casually talks about twists and folds.
Which could use some good hidration
He's kind of a hero really😅
Yeah honestly I hope he was wearing goggles when playing with the wire, that stuff was pinging itself all over the place.
1:57 this “fun fact” has such insane consequences it’s amazing.
“Two twists” being the same as “no twist” is why you can have _spin-1/2_ particles (ones you have to rotate by 720° for a “full rotation” instead of 360° like “normal”).
Electrons are spin-1/2, and that gives them a particular property: spin-1/2 particles are subject to something called the _Pauli Exclusion Principle_ which states that ‘no two spin-1/2 particles can share a state’ where ‘a state’ basically means ‘all properties’.
So two spin-1/2 particles can’t coexist at the same place, with the same energy, etc. At least one thing needs to be different between them. This, it turns out is _why atoms have energy levels for electrons_ - once all the possible states at one energy are used up, the next particle must be at a higher energy because otherwise two would share a state, which they can’t do!
In turn, atomic energy levels are basically the core reason that chemistry exists at all. Without chemistry, you don’t have biology, and without biology we wouldn’t exist!
So basically, that strange little rubberband twist thing is possible because of the same mathematics that allows the existence of basically everything macroscopic, including humans!!
Isn’t reality just amazing?
As I was watching this I thought to myself that these mathematics and geometry must reflect somewhere else in the universe and influence something fundamental about reality. Then I see your comment. Reality is in fact amazing. Thanks
Good lord!!! That’s amazing. And here I am, still confused by Möbius strips…
Mind blown
The word "reality" is typically used to imply the unrealism of something else. So, "Isn't the universe amazing?" would be more appropriate to use here than "Isn't reality amazing?".
@stevemould you need to make a video on this
You also now know how to fold a bandsaw blade for storage or shipping. The tricky bits are double folding (5 loops) longer blades and unfolding one for use without injury. Dropping the folded blade in a large space and jumping back is one technique for the latter.
Yep, you yell "frag out" and hide behind a table. There is no other way sadly.
Folded saw blades are some of the scariest things I've dealt with in a shop. 😂
The trick I came up with was using two substantial, and sacrificial, zip ties. I put one on each side of the bundle but kept them loose. Then, after cutting the factory straps/bands, the band saw blade tried to spring open, but holding it with gloves and having the extra protection from the zip ties gave me the moment to understand which direction it was trying to go. I then just held it with one hand in a way that it would spring away from me when I cut a zip tie and used side cutters to release it. Maybe overthinking things, but my shop is tiny and I don't have the floor space to just let it go
It's also the technique for folding a bike tyre without putting a kink in the wire bead.
I'm pretty comfortable around most shop tools but bandsaws have always freaked me out in general.
Try a 3 loop bandsaw mill blade! THAT shit is scary!!
I really appreciate your commitment to building physical demonstration models! They are great at simplifying things to focus on the phenomenon of interest, while also retaining some of the messy inconveniences of reality that would be lost in a simulation/animation.
i am 35 years old and just learned about that shoe-lace trick...thanks Steve!
careful because a shoe knot that can't be untied easily tends to become a nightmare to undo if you actually need to undo it. What you want is a shoelace that has a lot of friction, but is in the "easy to unknot" condition, so it does not untie by itself easily, but never gets too tight to require a screwdriver and a lot of patience to untie.
The weak knot is a so called "granny knot" and the strong knot is a square or reef knot.
My favorite technique to tie your shoelaces in a proper square knot is the so called "Ian knot". Look it up!
+
@@StefanoBorini
The version Steve shows is just a standard square knot and is slipped. It's not difficult to untie at all. It's certainly easier to untie than double knotting, while holding better than a granny knot.
@@ovidiu_nl aka, how I was always taught to tie my shoes. Passed down by my father and his father before him.
The instructions on Steve’s tent are actually remarkably clear and detailed. The ones on the version I’ve used are basically: 1. Bring these bits together. 2. Perform magic. 3. Profit!
Perhaps he now could do "folding a fitted sheet" or don't they have them in the UK?
Since you're using Quechua pop up tents: they now fold them differently, you actually start inside the tent and kinda fold it inside out, they added clips to help you with the process.
During College I worked as a side job in Decathlon and every now-and-then a person would come in with a unfolded tent which they had bought but were unable to fold back in. XD
The instructions for those tents are usually very unclear. I have a tent like this and needed a youtube video to find out how it works. Once you know it is easy.
0:18 "I always find that I'm better at something if I can figure out how it works and why it was made to work that way."
Oh man! That's exactly my "problem" too.
I'm sure it's why I've always struggled with math and have perhaps been perceived as slow at learning by some. It wasn't until only a few years ago when I discovered one of the first math videos on TH-cam where someone visually dissected pythagorean theorem, almost like a tear-down of an appliance, and suddenly I got the math and what it did.
This is why you're one of my favorite channels, because you deconstruct and/or analogize in a way that very few educators can. Not just explaining the way something works in high level language and abstraction, but in a way that reveals the hidden wires inside the tent and how they work in physical real space. Your water channel experiments (or whatever those are called) are some of the most intuitive and eye opening of all your videos.
With that said, people should check out Alpha Phoenix's channel too, if you don't already, he did some water channel experiments on there to better explain advanced electrical concepts, and they are really good, in the way Steve's videos are so good.
+1 for Alpha Phoenix!
Circular handheld reflectors used on film sets utilise the precise same geometry so you can have a giant reflector that neatly folds up into a small circle for easy storage.
Ngl it is standard practise to casually hand them to new assistances on set and ask them to just put them away. Then you go for a cup of coffee and snigger whilst they get completely confused.
In a similar vein, Army mechanics and truck drivers like to tell the new soldiers to fetch bottles of "blinker fluid".
@@geckoman1011 lol but thats just a trick involving a thing that doesnt actually exist. Thats not very similar to charging an assistant with an annoying but actually real task :D
@@geckoman1011 or as in one of @steveio's shorts where they get the (annoying) intern to go find Fallopian tubes...
You're actually a hero, Steve
First the Mould effect, now the Mould Fold. Absolutely brilliant
Bandsaw blades get packaged the same way as the 3-layer band, with the added fun of one edge being riddled with sharp cutting teeth 😅
Lemme tell ya, hand & finger placement when manipulating the twist is quite important.
especially the 1"+ wide ones.
Did you say hand and finger RE-placement?
Gloves?
@@cslloyd1 fairly thick ones, yes😂
I find this topic interesting. There is also a way to wind electrical cables that takes advantage of these twists to lay flat when coiled and to allow the cable to be laid out without twists. It's called a "roadie wrap" because this is how cables used on stages for musical performers are stowed and used on stage. Coiling involves one wrap going over-hand and the next wrap receiving an under-hand (or reverse coil). This is also how boxes of cat5 network cable are sold with these reverse twists that allow the cable to be pulled from the box without pulling it from a rotating spool.
Fascinating breakdown of the mechanics behind pop-up tents. I've always struggled with my tent, it's comforting to know there's a purpose behind the design and that I wasn't just terrible at it.
The cut in his hand at 6:10 perfectly defines how frustrating this awesome design could be. Thank you for taking one for the team.
As you mentioned the pop-up tents use rods instead of bands for the frame, so is it possible that the joint of the rods allows them to spin in their axis in order to avoid twist?
A possibility. I don't know whether the rods are friction fitted into the joint or if they're free-spinning, but free-spinning would indeed allow the rod to untwist itself a bit.
That said, I believe the longer the rod is, the harder it is for the entire rod to untwist itself.
Then again, the longer the rod is, the longer each twist are, reducing the overall tension.
And the thinner the rod is, the thinner each twist are as well, further reducing the overall tension.
Overall, you don't really need to worry too much about twisting.
That said, each twist massively increases the tension, so twist reduction is still desirable.
It's easier to twist a long, narrow and thin metal strip (or a long and thin metal rod) than it is to twist a cube (or short and thick cylinder) of metal.
I think that would fully cancel the tension such that it wouldn't be much of a "pop-up" tent any more
I had one of theese borrowed once for the party, i cant remember clearly when exactly, but i think i already pop it into broken state with one of the rod broken (rods were from someting resembling plastic and fiberglass). Anyway taped it for the night. In the morning i removed tape and somehow fold it in that broken state, it was rly problematic coz rods was tensioning from the bend so much it was riping fabric, so i taped it somehow in the folded broken mess.
In the end i repaired it at home learning there is joint made just by tube with both ends in it.
So i just added another tube on the broken place, stuffed it back in the tent and gave it back. Still work today.
Anyway i think there is minimal move in the joints. Because of bend rods in straight tube generate so much friction it cant slip of.
It could depend on materials. But it would need to have differently desinged joint to secure rods from sliping off, which could be problematic since there is suprisingli a lot of bending force on the joint.
At 3:03 is close up of the joint. It looks like ends of the rod are put together with another piece between them. Maybe there's a coilspring inside the bright tube in the middle.
@@ThomasEdits Wouldn't most of the pop-up tension come from the rods wanting to be straight (or at least in a big circle as possible)?
Mind blown on the handed-ness of the first knot in tying shoe lace! Just fixed mine!
I discovered this by myself when I was about 35 years old, but this should be taught to all children in their first year of school. And many other things too that the educational system purposely omits from schools.
I wish you'd made more videos , I love how your mind works and how well you communicate fun science stuff such as topology without making it dry.
I look forward to the elastic knot video
He makes them every 1-4 weeks that’s pretty high frequency for the quality. But I agree! The world always needs more Steve!
I don’t know about anybody else, but this video was life changing for me. Now I can properly tie a bow. 😆
Seriously though, I’m a lefty and even after 37 years I still struggle with mirroring the world and not understanding what specifically I was struggling with until that “aha, it’s a lefty problem” moment strikes. The idea that handedness of knots matters is really helpful and explains my previously abysmal bows. So thanks!
I really appreciate how you break down concepts in ways that are easy to understand. 😊
8:24 don't worry my kids do that too 😂 I got them into scratch programming after showing them my "boring" programming but I'm honestly going to get the kiwi subscription, it looks great.
Yep same here, byut hen again I taught, with the help of videos, my then 5 and then 8 year Olds the basics of atomic energy, and how fission works.
Poor kids
Let your kid read some good novels, it will help with "boring" programming. Text coding is all about imagining what is working in your head.
the Kiwi crates are great but theyre not an instant and perfect fix for the "oh thats cool *walks away*" problem. I get them monthly for my nieces and half the time I end up doing 80% of the building myself while they check in once in a while to see if anything cool has happened. You still have to kind of sit them down and force them to walk through it if thats your desired outcome. Of course it doesnt have to be, it can still be fun to do most of the building yourself and let them play with the resulting toy/gadget :)
My niece and nephew have just learned to preface any questions or comments with ‘k, auntie, don’t try to teach me anything’
There was a 2-man tent my parents had waaaay back in the day that was a regular pole sort of tent, but the difference between it and what you can get now is that it used clips to attach the fabric to the poles, and the ones you get today you have to slide the poles through a loop in the fabric.
Our tent I put up, by myself, in the dark, at the age of 12 or 14 in about five minutes.
High quality tents probably use the fabric loops because they're lighter and more compact. You wouldn't think it would matter much but when the whole 2-person tent only weighs a few pounds adding in those clips would make a pretty big difference. And if you regularly do any sort of overnight hiking trips a lightweight tent is definitely worth it. A cheaper tent used for car camping where weight doesn't matter as much can use the clips, as well as heavy fibreglass poles instead of more expensive carbon fibre poles.
You're a hero. I could never figure out how to get my pop up tent put away on that second step, I legitimately use one while camping. They're so cool.
The directions for my decade- old pop-up tent included turning the "U" on its side and being aware of handedness. Your explanation was much easier to understand, however
I would love Steve Mould to do a video on cord management.
What is the best coiling method and why : over-under, chaotic bundle, figure 8 ? Is it different for small cords like the ones in headsets?
Great content and I like your accent!
One of my friends had a routine that involved putting a pop up tent back into the bag only using their feet.
It was a very neat trick that was properly appreciated by fellow jugglers / object manipulators.
Sign in the outdoors shop window: "Now is the season for our discount tents"
It’s a good sign for bargain tents and purposes
Went to a dance party once with the tagline "now is the season of our discotheque"
I didn't get the Shakespeare reference at first.
It's an in-tents sale. Perhaps the most intense in years.
Hey Steve, thanks for that little bit at the end with your kids. I have that with mine and I could never shake the idea that maybe something is wrong with me to not be good enough to excite them or maybe something is wrong with them for not getting excited about these things. This definitely shows me that it's neither and it, well, just is. Take care!
I agree. There is a lot of fabrication in videos these days - I think that's one of the things that initially earned my subscription of his channel; the fact that he didn't glitz up or over-glorify a lot of things for the camera/views.
After a camping weekend with the boys, one mate was struggling with this. I took over, never having handled a pop-up tent before, and immediately and by pure luck stumbled across the solution. I have no idea how to replicate it, and I even struggle with these one-band collapsible backgrounds. But my mates now all think I’m some sort of outdoor endboss. I’m never touching a collapsible tent in their presence again - I want to keep up that illusion.
I had a pop up tent in the 90s for boy scout camping. It was supper easy to fold up. I seem to remember it using a method kinda like the last one you showed.
i just needed to close my tent
4:21 Without realizing it, Steve demonstrates an aspect of string theory that has always puzzled me, namely how does a loop of string vibrate. He gives two examples!
If you make you kids a collapsible heat powered boat, could you name it Papa's popup pop-pop boat?
Ouch.
If you worked in some Bavarian tuba music you could have Papa's oom-pah-pah popup pop pop boat.
if you also added some poppy designs on the boat, you could have papa's oom-pah-pah popup pop pop poppy boat
I suppose bringing puppies in to this papa's oom-pah-pah popup pop pop poppy boat party would be... A party pooper
They're still learning
Bring your puppies and it becomes papa's oom-pah-pah popup pop-pop puppy poppy boat.
Excellent. I remember watching this and used the three-loop method to tidy away some 'endless' van door seals during a restoration. Now the seals aren't twisted and are much more likely to be fine when refitted. So, not just for tents! Thank you.
This video is why TH-cam exists.
This reminded me of those "Ideal way to store an extension cord (audio cable, etc.)" videos that I can' t seem to wrap (lol) my head around when the task comes up.
Also useful to know that if you ever need to post a bike tyre you can use the technique you showed in the first part of the video for a single loop. That way you won't kink the wire bead of the tyre.
This was really cool. It explains möbius strips very well, which also explains the magic strip of cutting a möbius strips with one or two twists into either two separate loops, one large loop or two interlocking loops. Now if you could go into depth of explaining how an irrigation drip system valve works which may help me understand how the valve works on the bathtub faucet works to divert the water from filling the bathtub to the shower head. Thanks for sharing.
You are a Hero ❤
This is really interesting. Related to this I work in media production. From the onset we learn how you either have to literally roll most cables to keep the from “getting” a 1/4 twist in them -or- use an “over-under” technique to compensate for a natural twist induced into the cable to prevent creating a twist (loop when the cable is run out) . I’m wondering if that’s the flip-aide of putting away the wire loop by adding a twist. You have probably experienced this issue rolling up a garden hose - depending on if you rolled it on a spool or hand coil it.
We have the same issue commercial diving. The solution I like best is to drop the cable/umbilical in a figure 8 pattern.
When you're finished you use a small rope with an eye. That forms a slipknot at the top of the 8. Then the 8 is folded to make a circle and the rope passed over the bundle and back through the eye. There you can secure it with a hitch, or lift the whole lot by the rope and hitch the rope to a rail.
Nice! I'll try that on my garden hose - I think it should work well there...@@gasdive
This video is awesome! Great job!
I am totally excited about that elastic knots video! I've been looking into them ever since I saw Veritasium's video on knot theory, which got me hooked on knots in general.
Ok that bit with the shoelace tying has completely changed my life I think I’ve been tying my laces the wrong way my whole life
The handedness of the bow is because it's a reef-knot with slip bights on both sides of the second thumbknot. If this one's in the same handedness as the first, you have a slipped granny knot, which won't hold. Now, if you continue stacking the thumb knots, you can build a stack of bight loops, making quite a fancy bow - if you do, finish off with a thumb knot, to hold it all together.
What
cursed show tieing
Huh, the handedness 'matching' being what causes the slipping must be why I learned to fix the slipping shoelace knot problem by doing my 'bunny ears' the other way round, rather than Steves case of doing the starting knot the other way round.
@@Xieda The twist of the cord can also impact this, of course. Usually they're braided, making the last comment immaterial, but it's always worth keeping in mind if using some kind of twine or laid light cord.
Also, a knot as opposed to a friction locks on itself, rigidly. This causes a potential break point where forces reflected from the knot concentrate.
i used to have this exact tent, i wish i'd known about the laying-it-flat method ten years ago! i replaced it with one with pull cords that expand an umbrella-like frame, which is both very cool to watch, and way easier to put up and pack down
Pitching a tent for this.
once it's pitched, you might as well use it
If tent remains pitched for more than 4 hours please contact Steve Mould so he can bend and twist the tension out of it.
Wow...I have a tent like that and this shows me exactly how it works and a simple way to get it back to folded condition. Thank you!!!
No one watches my videos when I pitch a tent. All I ever get is 'sir this is McDonald's '
Think you so much now i fin a solution to fold my quechoua 2 sec correctly after 5 years of tension fold , i try your methode and its work 100% smooth ❤
thumbnail giving saddam hussein hiding spot
This is really interesting and going into quite some detail for a TH-cam general-science channel video tbh. Informative and fun at the same time. 8 minutes flew like a second :D Nice work! Thank you Steve 😀
I'm wondering whether you could construct a nitinol wire tent (or whatever shape) where all wire parts are made up of two parallel fibres, each one having the shape memory of either the packed up or the expanded shape. If these wires are sufficiently heat-insulated from one another, could you run current through one of them to extend it and the other one to collapse it? I.e., is the shape memory force of nitinol strong enough to deform twice its own mass?
I feel like it wouldn't work because you need the folding to be done in steps, not all at once, and because it would make the tent heavy. Another thing is that two-second tents are very cheap, which big nitinol rods and electronics aren't.
I'd be worried about running a current through the nitninol with polyester or nylon fabric around it...sounds like a recipe for starting a fire xD
@@RedHair651 haha I wasn't aiming to make a commercial product out of this, at least not a tent. I was just thinking about a proof of concept. So if the folding process of this tent style is too complex to do in one step, let's start with a simpler one, e.g. folding a ring into a smaller three-layered one.
@@Quickleaf Since the wires have to be insulated anyway (such that only one of them heats up at a time), I guess that wouldn't be too much of a problem
You're creating a nitinol actuator with two different directions.. Interesting
Dear Steve,
I have participated in a desert rallye, where we have also brought these two-second tents, after all, who wants to fiddle with setting up a tent after a long day driving? The morning after is always a challenge, and it was most hilarious to see how many people were struggling to tame their tents - including myself.
So I have spent quite a few days in the unforgiving company of these tents, and it kept me wondering, how it is possible to make the "figure-eight and fold in half" trick. According to your nitinol or rubber band comparison, this should not be possible. And indeed it WOULD NOT have been possible if the tent had been built the same way!
But it is NOT built the same way, and this is what I need to point out. It is also visible in your video at 3:00 to 3:03, how the carbon fibre rods are joined together. The little metal part allows the two ends of the loops to twist, so this way it is fundamentally different from your example, and based on this, the tent loops behave differently from your model. Like allowing to cut the rubber band, and glue them together after the fold.
Please, if you have the chance and you have not disposed of your destroyed tent, check this out, I hope you'll appreciate the forehead slapping moment.
4:29 "Honey, have you seen my vibration generator anywhere? I need to use it in a video."
Yes Steve, you are my pop-up tent and math hero! A world-changing video, indeed.
Indeed. He rescues a millions of people's seconds everyday
5:05 Surely you meant the knotification bell?
That is one of the Life Changing mechanism. that when applied correctly with Fabric, It just works. once you get it's logic.,,
Respect to the Inventors. Cheers
You found Saddam Hussein just for the thumbnail?
Because Saddam is orange? 😅🤔
Credible
██▅▇██▇▆▅▄▄▄▇
@@TheOneBoQuAthat s trump
Brudda are you dumb or something??
I really love how Steve Mould’s content is mostly exploring the workings of gadgets🧩, trinkets🔑and objects💈explained with Physics📐 & Engineering⛓️.
Hey Steve.... when your kids walk away after you explain something, you should take it as a compliment. Maybe you explained it so well that they just filed it away in their heads as "solved" so they had no more questions? They will never have to make a video showing that they couldn't do something..... like Daddy. 😂
Steve, I find your videos both highly entertaining and utterly fascinating. The way you present topics, combined with your engaging manner and those brilliantly fun cutaways, is absolutely superb. I’m thrilled to have stumbled upon your channel. It’s refreshing to see someone deliver content with such enthusiasm and clarity. I’ll definitely be recommending your channel to my friends, and I look forward to your future uploads. Keep up the fantastic work!
8:16 - :D
If only I could Like and Subscribe twice ... just for this moment
Great vid structure for keeping the attention span. The tangents actually made it more interesting, and the transitions were great. Plus I actually learned something useful.
I thought that was saddam hussein in the thumbnail
same
As a sort of “bushcraft engineer” I’ve found both you and NightHawkInLight in particular to be invaluable sources of information and inspiration.
Thumbnail: Saddam Hussein
Not anymore
Does anyone remember what movie these were first featured in ~25 years ago? There was a scene that showcased these that got people interested in them, it was like a special ops team arrives at winter scene and deploys these tents. At the time it was like surreal magic to see the tent thrown out as a disc and pop up, it wowed everyone.
2.67M subscribers and can't afford hand lotion? xd
Just to confuse the issue.....I used one of those pop up tents for camping and always folded it differently. At 2:20 when you bring the two ends together, just continue the movement, sliding them past each other towards the ground. Doing so naturally brings together the two points currently on the ground joined by the strip of fabric. They also end up sliding past each other. The whole thing collapses onto the ground as a circular package.
The shoe laces! I've tried to explain that to people: two twists in the same direction is a weak Granny knot. A twist in one direction then a twist on the opposite direction is a solid Square knot.
Knots are fun.
Hey Steve the vand is just like a timber bandsaw band. But they are so big that you have to hold one end and then you raise it up and whip it down and it basically folds itself into the 3 layered form. Not to be done without gloves because those are real pointy bois those bands
5:15 tent folding instruction starts here.
This was particularly interesting and also succint. Don't let them con you into thinking that you ramble on. That was a lot of information packed into a short amount of time.
You have changed my life, and possibly the world. You are a hero.
I was glad to see this *pop-up* in my subscription box :)
Cool. That tent fold sheer process is MUCH better than the instructions. Bravo!!
I didn't look for this knowledge, but I'm glad I learned it! Getting all the fabric out of the way really does make the folding easier to understand
For those with an interest in all things knotty: if you have a rubber band around - best if it's at least a couple inches in diameter, and has good width across the band - retrieve it to follow along.
Use the method demonstrated here (or your own if you have one you prefer) to loop the rubber band from one to three. Pass a cylindrical object through the center of the loops (a pen, pencil, or even a finger or thumb if you're sure it won't cut off circulation). Match the object used to the size of the opening of the loops such that the rubber band will hold on just enough to not slip away. When you dress the loops, you'll notice it takes the form of the idealized resting state of the ubiquitous Clove Hitch. There will be two distinct halves--on one side is three parallel bands, one on top of the next; on the other side, the business end of the hitch is perfectly laid out. Take a few moments to examine it as it is.
I think this idealized model can be used to infer why the knot is so successful. Simplicity aside, Steve's exploration of the function of the tent's support rods grants insight we can use in the areas of our own lives in which the application of knots is required or proves useful--whatever they may be. It seems that this three-loop configuration is the simplest one available to resolve the problematic introduction of twists, which are inherent to the action of looping itself, and not necessarily due to the material properties of whatever is being looped..
The topic & the delivery make for some of the most entertaining videos on Y/T. Many thanx Steve 👍👍
I got one of those 2 man popup tents nearly 20 years ago, and never had a problem putting them away. The 3 man version works slightly differently, but works just as well.
Steve, you are legitimately one of the smartest people I have ever heard, and that's clearly because you're incredibly curious. It is inspiring.
The maths of this is interesting. However, as a fairly regular camper, standard tents are generally easier to deal with and more substantial in bad weather than pop-up or even worse blow-up tents.
If you're a camping newbie, get a tent with a cross design (two poles in an x-shape) rather than a tunnel design (each pole is independent and parallel to the adjacent ones) - the former is largely freestanding and the latter isn't, so you'll need more hands. Also, match the coloured poles to the coloured tabs on the sleeves (where you put the pole through) and push rather than pull the poles.
You also want one that is pitched outer first in case it's raining. After the first use, you can leave the inner/pods connected to the outer to make it easier to repitch - just leave a small gap with the zip or you'll create an air bubble.
I learned these tricks by unfolding and refolding fan belts for automobiles.
The longer the belt, the more folds to get it into the package, yet in the end, the belt wasn't damaged or compromised.
Not a here we want...but the hero we NEED!
Thank you Steve for that thought-provoking video. BTW, you should put some moisturizer on your thumbs, preferable Cetaphil or QV cream (I've no commercial interest in either company). I've dry skin and I see a fellow sufferer. Keep up the good work.
Quick correction 5:33 tent poles are typically made of fibre glass rather than carbon fibre.
I wish more mathematics was taught in a practical way with real world examples like this; it makes it so much easier to understand!
I am always on the lookout for quirky things that might have a practical use. Not really found anything ground-breaking yet. This was fascinating.
Thanks for making this video! I've picked up a few of these kinds of "tents" and I have always had trouble collapsing them back down. This really helps make sense out of the process. : - )
I like how your channel feels like an exploration of whatever has caught your interest recently
I have never used a foldout tent, so that trick is not guing to change my world, but I did learn how to tie my shoelaces properly which might, and that Steve Mould sounds really funny in half speed slow motion, so good video all around.
I have always avoided those tents because of the mystery of how to fold them up. It is no longer a mystery. Thank you Steve :)
Oh my gosh, this video was so cool and interesting. Thank you so much. I have struggled with those tents many times.
And thus he indirectly created a hands-on explanation of the over-under method for wrapping audio cables. :D
Congratulations hero you mastered the pop up tent and Gave the world the Mold effect.🎉
Two possible hypotheses on the second fold of the pop-up tent:
1: perhaps the twist from the first fold forces you to do the first fold in the way that minimizes the resulting total twist (of at least makes one direction easier than the other), or
2: maybe the segments are connected in a way that enables them to rotate.
Of course it might depend on the specific tent which one of these (or neither) is the case.
this is exactly how I learn things! I'll be perplexed by instructions other people find simple, but if I can take something apart or otherwise learn how it works, how it's engineered, then I'm set and have learned new skills for taking the design further with my own ideas
I was literally just at Decathlon yesterday looking for tents and was interested on this exact model. I guess I'm coming back tomorrow and buy one.