WEBVTT - What is the difference between good and bad toy helicopters?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from house Stuff Works dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>We're smart Happens Hi. I'm are so branding with today's question,

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<v Speaker 1>what is the difference between a good toy helicopter and

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<v Speaker 1>a bad toy helicopter? And the reason why this question

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<v Speaker 1>came up is because my kids, the twins, got little

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<v Speaker 1>indoor helicopters for Christmas. And these things they're the kind

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<v Speaker 1>of thing you would get at the mall uh and

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<v Speaker 1>they were given to them by my mother. And these

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<v Speaker 1>were fantastic toys in the sense that the twins love them.

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<v Speaker 1>They played with them all day Christmas Day. But even

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<v Speaker 1>though they were radio controlled, or really not really radio controlled,

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<v Speaker 1>but in this case they were infrared controlled helicopters, so

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<v Speaker 1>you were supposed to be able to steer them with

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<v Speaker 1>a little control box, you could not actually steer them

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<v Speaker 1>very well. And that meant that they crashed into walls

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<v Speaker 1>and lamps and just about any obstacle there was in

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<v Speaker 1>the house. And by the end of Christmas Day these

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<v Speaker 1>things could no longer fly. They had been beat up

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<v Speaker 1>so badly from running into things that they couldn't get

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<v Speaker 1>off the ground anymore. So now the twins had these

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<v Speaker 1>toys that they loved, but that no longer worked, and I,

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<v Speaker 1>as their parents, set out to figure out is there

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<v Speaker 1>such a thing as a toy helicopter in the thirty

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<v Speaker 1>ish dollar range that's actually a good toy that you

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<v Speaker 1>actually can control accurately, fly around accurately, and avoid running

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<v Speaker 1>into things so it lasts more than eight hours. To

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<v Speaker 1>make a long story short, the answer is that, yes,

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<v Speaker 1>there is such a thing as an indoor helicopter in

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<v Speaker 1>the thirty dollar range that little kids can control successfully

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<v Speaker 1>and that will last for weeks or months at a time.

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<v Speaker 1>And I've found out about this both by reading on

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<v Speaker 1>the internet and by talking to friends. It turns out

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<v Speaker 1>the model number is the S one oh seven G,

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<v Speaker 1>which you can find all over the internet for as

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<v Speaker 1>little as twenty two dollars online. Usually it's more like

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<v Speaker 1>thirty or forty dollars if you find it in a store.

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<v Speaker 1>But the thing that makes these machines so amazing is

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<v Speaker 1>that they're incredibly stable in flight, and they have very

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<v Speaker 1>very precise steering. The twins can fly them without crashing

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<v Speaker 1>them at all, and they're better constructed. They have metal

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<v Speaker 1>bodies and metal parts in all the places that are

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<v Speaker 1>likely to fail so there have been no issues with

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<v Speaker 1>the Twins flying these things around. It's a good lesson

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<v Speaker 1>in how product A and product be, even though they

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<v Speaker 1>do the same kind of thing in the same kind

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<v Speaker 1>of price range, can perform completely differently. In this case,

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<v Speaker 1>the S one oh seven is an order of magnitude

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<v Speaker 1>better than the little helicopters that they replaced, So what's

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<v Speaker 1>the difference, Like, how can this thing be so much better?

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<v Speaker 1>And then one of the key differences is the fact

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<v Speaker 1>that there's a little accelerometer built into the helicopter and

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<v Speaker 1>a little computer that can listen to that accelerometer and

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<v Speaker 1>make it more stable in the air. The other thing

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<v Speaker 1>is that the S one oh seven has a tail rotor,

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<v Speaker 1>where the ones that the Twins originally got did not.

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<v Speaker 1>And this tail rotor is interesting because it's not oriented

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<v Speaker 1>vertically like a normal helicopter. It's oriented horizontally. So these

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<v Speaker 1>are twin rotor helicopters with counter rotating blades. The rotation

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<v Speaker 1>of the blades cancel each other out, so technically you

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<v Speaker 1>don't need a tail rotor to keep the body from spinning.

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<v Speaker 1>But what the horizontal tail rotor does is it lets

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<v Speaker 1>you tip the helicopter forward or backward while it's in flight,

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<v Speaker 1>and that gives you a way to point it in

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<v Speaker 1>a direction to start going in that direction at a

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<v Speaker 1>good rate of speed, and then on the control stick

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<v Speaker 1>you have the ability to rotate the helicopter body in

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<v Speaker 1>mid air and control which direction you want to go.

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<v Speaker 1>This is nothing like the way real helicopters work that

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<v Speaker 1>we see flying around covering news stories and things like that,

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<v Speaker 1>but it's a very very stable way to have a

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<v Speaker 1>toy helicopter that works really well. Here's another interesting thing

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<v Speaker 1>about these toy helicopters that the Twins got, either the

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<v Speaker 1>original ones they got or the ones that are much

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<v Speaker 1>more stable, these toys would have been absolutely impossible for

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<v Speaker 1>anyone to create when I was a kid, and there

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<v Speaker 1>are at least five reasons why that's so. The first

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<v Speaker 1>reason is because the motors in these helicopters. Each helicopter

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<v Speaker 1>has three motors to that control the two main rotors

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<v Speaker 1>and one that controls the tail rotor. Those motors can

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<v Speaker 1>be so small and so powerful because of the invention

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<v Speaker 1>of neo dimium magnets. These magnets had not been invented

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<v Speaker 1>when I was a kid. The second reason is because

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<v Speaker 1>the battery can be so small and light because it

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<v Speaker 1>uses lithium polymer technology, and that didn't exist when I

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<v Speaker 1>was a kid. The third reason is because the stability

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<v Speaker 1>and flight is made possible by this clever counter rotating

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<v Speaker 1>rotor design with a weighted balancing bar that automatically stabilizes

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<v Speaker 1>the helicopter anytime it tries to tip in one direction

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<v Speaker 1>or the other. That design was invented and patented fairly recently. Then,

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<v Speaker 1>the fourth reason is that the stability is enhanced by

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<v Speaker 1>these little inexpensive onboard accelerometer chips and a little microprocessor,

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<v Speaker 1>and neither of those things existed when I was a kid,

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<v Speaker 1>especially in a tiny form factor like that that could

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<v Speaker 1>have been battery operated. And then, fifth and finally, the

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<v Speaker 1>control for this thing is provided by infrared l e

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<v Speaker 1>ed s and a tiny Infra A receiver inside the helicopter.

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<v Speaker 1>The l E d s didn't exist when I was

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<v Speaker 1>a kid, and the cost of both the sender and

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<v Speaker 1>the receiver technology has been driven to near zero because

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<v Speaker 1>it's the same technology used in almost every TV remote control.

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<v Speaker 1>So they've been manufacturing these remote controls in such gigantic

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<v Speaker 1>volumes that the costs have been reduced to practically zero.

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<v Speaker 1>That is a whole lot of new technology coming together

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<v Speaker 1>to make toy helicopters possible in the price range. Who

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<v Speaker 1>knows what toy helicopters will look like in twenty years.

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<v Speaker 1>For more on this and thousands of other topics, does

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