The solution? Tell yourself that all you were faced with was a simple centrifuge device and that with a twist of the wrist, said balls would be banished from the middle of the toy to come to a comfortable rest on the upper edges. Such was and is the mind-boggling power of the centrifuge.
And the device is aptly named from the Latin ‘centrum’ (centre) and ‘fugio’ (I flee). What did those silly little steel balls do? Flee from the centre of the silly little cot didn’t they?
Away from family Christmas feasts though, in the real world, the world’s biggest centrifuges are used to momentarily simulate increased gravity on our humble planet. A massive tube spinning around in an equally massive circle subjects whatever’s in either end of it to massive forces far beyond those Newton meddled in when he dropped his apple.
At a fairground, it’s the same principals of the centrifuge that are imbued with the power to dangerously reposition the contents of your stomach following a stint on the teacups.
Rather beautifully though, centrifuges are used by scientists to microscopically meddle with cells. By spinning a tube many millions of times smaller than the ones used by NASA, the men in white coats can separate the nucleus of a cell from the cytoplasm and other grot that surrounds it. Think egg yokes from egg whites.
Day to day, your spin dryer does the same centrifugal job. The difference being that your spin dryer isn’t practicing for a space exploration, or looking for cheap nauseating thrills; or discovering the secrets of the human body - it’s trying to separate the water from your clothes.
