Jochen Valett, in the mid-1990s, developed a kinetic spring toy called Toroflux. The toy features a ribbon of steel which is woven into a torus of spring, and it is known for the tricks it can perform due to its energy-minimizing abilities. This toy has been favorite among the physics lovers for a long time. Recently, a student playing with the toy discovered an incredible property of the Toroflux. The property of getting vanished.
The student reached out to the mathematics professor who is also known on YouTube as Mathologer; he decided to share the mathematical secrets of the Toroflux disappearing quality. He explained in the video description, “Today is all about geometric appearing and vanishing paradoxes and that math that powers them. This video was inspired by a new paradox of this type that Bill Russel from Bakersfield, California discovered while playing with a Toroflux.”
Math lovers will be excited to see the video as it also features cameos by “Cassini’s Fibonacci identity which forms a core of the Fibonacci based paradox.” Everyone else is sure to enjoy this demonstration of how mathematics can be used to perform magic. However, since this magic doesn’t exists, Polster explained in the clip, “Fibonacci magic boils down to cheating. But it is magical, really ingenious cheating.”
