Awesome Engineering

Hitting a flying baseball or wiffle ball takes practice, but you can do it with time. With a game against a team of professional wiffle ball players on the line, Mark Rober engineered a cheat to give him a chance. He started by studying the physics that enable curveballs and created mechanical balls that change trajectory as they approach the batter.

3D illustrator Jared Owen loves to take things apart to show how they work. In this video, he looks at the mechanisms inside of two old-school mechanical scales to see how they use springs, gears, and plates to measure how much something weighs. It’s all about something called Hooke’s Law.

After showing off his square-wheeled bicycle, maker, The Q is back with another bike with oddly-shaped geometry. This model features triangular wheels with a slight curve. The trick to maintaining contact without huge bumps is a flexible suspension and a pair of conveyor belts that press against the tires as he pedals.

Ian Jimmerson shows off a truly impressive wooden model he built that demonstrates the inner workings of a 9-cylinder radial engine, like the ones used on some older airplanes. It’s amazing how stable it is as it gets up to speed. Check out his in-depth explainer videos here and here.

This unique bridge allows pedestrians to cross a river or canal, and lets ships pass underneath by rolling over to increase its clearance. It uses a hand-cranked cable system to flip the bridge along a rippled track. The concept was turned into a real bridge by Thomas Randall-Page.

We’re most creative as children because our imaginations have yet to be restricted by things like cost, practicality, and safety. Allen Pan asked his audience to relay some of their craziest childhood inventions and made his best effort to make them real. He started with shoes for climbing on ceilings; then, things get really dangerous.

With the advent of computers, typewriters became pretty much obsolete. But it’s still amazing to see the incredible engineering that went into this once ubiquitous office equipment. Jake from Animagraffs takes us deep into the inner workings of a mechanical typewriter using a detailed 3D model of an early 20th-century Underwood.

We’ve seen some pretty neat Doc Ock cosplays, but most of them don’t have real robot tentacles. Engineer James Bruton wanted to not only build a working tentacle robot but improve on its flexibility. His prototype is impressive, but only part of a single tentacle. We look forward to seeing his progress as he refines it.

The Q is here to fix another problem we didn’t know needed solving – mechanically wrapping things with tape. To build his single-purpose machine, he gathered up some spare bike parts he had lying around his shop and linked them together to spin a reel of tape as he moves an object through its open center.

JBV Creative has engineered all kinds of neat mechanical devices, including an overcomplicated candy dispenser and a robot that types. This time, he built a pair of machines that endlessly toss tiny basketballs into each other’s hoops. You can purchase a 3D printable model of the Roboballer on JBV’s website.

After creating a robot that gives haircuts to humans, Shane from Stuff Made Here has bestowed one of his robots with a far more dangerous tool than a set of clippers. While his chainsaw-wielding robot arm is designed for carving shapes from foam blocks, we could see it taking off an arm if there’s any bug in his programming.

The world record for highest vertical jump by a human is 47.1″. JLaservideo wanted to see if it was possible to break that record with the help of engineering. After playing with off-the-shelf spring shoes and some terrifying explosive prototypes, he ended up building a pair that uses compressed air to provide lift.

Brick Technology showed off some LEGO engines that run on compressed air. This time, they tested some different configurations to see which ones could achieve the highest RPM, how to minimize vibrations, and even connected one to a miniature transmission with a working gear shifter.

City dwellers take elevators for granted. But without these engineered marvels, we’d be stuck climbing staircases and probably not have skyscrapers. Illustrator and educator Jared Owen shares another informative 3D animation explaining the inner workings of these metal boxes we trust with our lives on an everyday basis.

The Brick Wall has built some of the coolest and most functional LEGO machines ever. Their latest build continues to uphold that promise by giving us a fully operational LEGO sewing machine. It’s not as complicated as their other machines, but it took four months of experimentation to get it to work just right.

If you’ve ever looked through the case back of a mechanical watch, you know they can be incredibly complicated inside. Jake from Animagraffs created this detailed 3D animation which shows how all of those intricate gears, axles, springs, and dials work together to accurately tell time without batteries or electronics.

Player pianos have been around since the 1890s. Modern models use electronics and servos, but vintage ones use a pedal-powered pneumatic system that forces air through holes in the music roll, actuating pushrods that move its hammers. Chris Plaola shows off an example of this Victorian-era engineering genius.

A normal bike uses a set of gears to influence the amount of torque sent to its rear wheel. Tom Stanton wanted to see if it was possible to create a bike transmission that uses magnets to turn its wheel and create resistance. Put your thinking caps on for this brainy video that incorporates physics, math, and engineering.

Brick Technology loves to build machines out of LEGO. In this video, they show how the building blocks can be used to create seven kinds of water pumps. It’s fascinating to see how the engineering of each affects the amount of fluid they can move. The best part is watching them all linked together at the end.

Most DoorDash and GrubHub deliveries are made using gas-guzzling cars sitting in traffic. Zipline hopes to change that with drones that hover 400 feet up, then lower a small delivery unit to quietly and safely drop off small packages. Mark Rober explains the tech and how Zipline has been saving lives with their existing drones.

If you need to move a building or another large structure, you need specialized industrial equipment. Mammoet’s Self-Propelled Modular Transporters can be used individually or in combination to transport enormous and heavy structures. Recently, they combined 604 SPMT axle lines to move a 16,258-ton support frame.

NERF darts typically require a blaster if you want to shoot them across the room. Joel Creates and his brother engineered a NERF dart that can fire itself right from your hand. After playing with compressed air, explosives, and springs, the final design relies on an electric ignition and a magician’s gimmick.

Wood model maker Ugears was clearly inspired by robots when they engineered this mechanical marvel. Once assembled, the six-legged creature ambles along on smooth surfaces when you wind its spring. The 388-piece, flat-pack model takes about 8 hours to assemble.