Spinning-hell Of A Game

North Street Labs really brought their ‘A’ game to the build finals for the Red Bull Creation contest. Behold the Centrifury, their spinning hell of a game. You can’t really make it out (because of the spinning) but the game consists of two bucket seats positioned opposite of each other on a merry-go-round type deck. Each player has a button in front of them which must be held down for the rig to start spinning. When you can’t take it any more just release the button and the spinning will stop. But you’ll also have lost the game. Whomever can hold out longer wins.

It’s not surprising to see such a well-polished build. After all, this is the same group that built the violently vibrating game of Simon. This time around most of the work came in the form of engineering and welding. First they had to make sure the design could take the forces this things puts out, then they had to build it. And all within the 72-hour time limit. We’re not sure what’s harder, winning the game or trying not to smile while watching the video after the break.

26 thoughts on “Spinning-hell Of A Game

  1. This looks like something you would see at Dave and Busters. All you need is to trim down that bar so you can see the other persons face and add a scoreboard so you can see who lasted the longest. would also be cool to add two more seats so a group could play.

    Besides that this is an amazing build that couldn’t be better

      1. No. The further out you are, the lower the force exerted on you. You’re travelling in an arc with a larger radius, so essentially a straighter line. It’s the force required to pull you round in the circle that you feel, the smaller the circle, the tighter the turn and the greater the force.

        1. This is incorrect in this situation, considering the fixed rotational speed. I think you are referring to a fixed velocity, such as you would encounter in a car making turns of different radius at the same speed.
          Centripetal acceleration is a_c = w^2 * r, with w being the angular rate, and the radius r.
          This is the same as a_c = v^2 / r, where v is the tangential velocity.

          So yes, being further out increases the acceleration here. Another reason why I would suggest to add some arm restraint straps.

      2. Yes I believe it does.
        The force is calculated with F=(mv^2)/r so it might appear that the force reduces as the radius increases, but you need to take into account that the number of revolutions is constant so the distance traveled increases dramatically with radius.

        Try something like this
        F=(mass*(2*pi*radius*revolutions per second)^2)/radius

  2. County fair time so that’s why I came up with this analogy. The NSL entry in like the ride in the midway that makes the kids dizzy for fun the HAD entry is that “game of skill” along the edge of the runway. That’s why the NSL will make it a race for HAD. IMO

  3. i like it!
    id suggest having the seats facing forwards and having a break lever for the button on the arm of the chair so you could be fully against the seat, like other comments say.
    wouldnt be too hard to set the seats on their side so you could pump it up a few more G’s.
    you could have a vairable speed with the levers too, so you could see how fast each person dares go.
    =p

    1. They are going around that fast it might be a little redundant for the other player and I’m guessing a wall around this thing if constructed would have to be padded encase gforce just happens to win against their welding skill. Hmm… Maybe you could veiw the action from above. I’d prefer a rope from above as opposed to a ladder though (:

  4. I love this Build and the folks at NSL friendly and a joy to be around.

    As far as rules… I know RBC set rules but the previous RBC also had rules and the winners of that competition broke several of them and still won. I think rules are meant to be broken.

  5. I once saw a video of some kids using a scooter to turn a playground merry go round at absurd speed. Bodies flew.

    It’s all good fun until someone gets a compound fracture.

  6. Great build. I saw one of these “playground rides the way we always wanted them” at King Richard’s Faire this past weekend. Instead of two seats, they had four (race car buckets) with seat belts. Diameter was about 10 feet, built from 4″ steel box, and power was like you remember it in the kiddie version, a lever in front of each seat that you alternately push and pull to keep the thing spinning. There were four guys on it, giving it their all, and they had that thing really moving!

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