The Physics of Beyblades

Greetings! My name is Travis, and I'm working with a group in my high school on a physics lab. This is a follow up from the lab we did last year, and this time we want to dig in further. The problem is, we really like beyblades but have never been able to play ourselves. We don't understand any of the terminology, but I was hoping ya'll could help us out.

As it stands we are trying to get down to what makes each of the three beyblade types good at what they do. Should an attack Beyblade be heavy or light? Should a stamina one be tall or short? Once we have this, we hope to do some analysis and find out why. So if anyone has a guide on what makes a good beyblade in layman's terms, I would be super appreciative!

Thanks for reading! Smile
Well I can help explain some of the things... I myself tried to figure out how beyblades worked with the little physics i know...

But basically for pure attack you want the beyblade to be heavy, if it is heavy it has a lot of friction from the normal force with the stadium, the more friction it has the harder the beyblade hits for two reasons, the law of conservation of energy and the friction it has with the stadium makes it hard for it to actually be knocked out itself (the more friction it has the more energy it will transfer to the opposing beyblade to actually knock it out).

For a pure stamina you want it to be short because of one reason, the gravitational torque is much less due to it being very close to the ground. Also a tip that's wide versus sharp will help it defy the gravitational torque much better, because instead of the mass heading towards the ground it is forced to stay up by the wide tip until the centrifugal force can no longer keep the bey up.

For defense you want something with really high friction to the stadium and something with very little recoil (not really sure what term to call recoil in a scientific way lol).

But those are my basic understandings of beyblades... Some things are probably wrong because I learned most of the stuff from the internet versus from actual classes haha.

Also i found your presentation to be very good, it covered the basics of how a beyblade works, it would be really cool if you could add air resistance forces, and centrifugal acceleration from going around the stadium (just for more accuracy lol, it's obviously very minimal).
For defense you want something with really high friction to the stadium and something with very little recoil (not really sure what term to call recoil in a scientific way

for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. therefore, i have made an equation for recoil:

Recoil=The reciprocal of (mass X velocity Divided by surface area.)

Furthermore, the smaller the diameter of a circle, the larger the surface area/volume ratio is.

In summary, the more circular it is, and the smaller it is, the less recoil it will have.

EDIT: And yes, i am only in 9th grade.
I'd be happy to contribute to this thread, but in all fairness, if you're doing physics presentations on Beyblade without ever having played the game, I find it very weird. Why not at least get some Beyblades and observe them first?
Oh we have about twenty Beyblades, we just aren't super familiar with them. I've spent tons of time playing with them, just nothing in a competitive sense, you know?

1234beyblade
This wiki page almost completely contradicts what you had to say on the subject of what makes a good stamina beyblade, is that a wiki error, or is it something not generally agreed on?
I think that 1234beyblade's phrasing was a little confusing - you want a tip that's wide and sharp, not just one or the other. Super-wide tips like GF have horrible Stamina due to high friction and the fact that flat tips convert rotational energy (spin power) into linear kinetic energy (movement around the stadium). Super-pointy tips like MS have horrible Stamina because there's nothing to keep them from falling over near the end of a battle. Tips that are both wide and pointy like WD are great, because they don't needlessly waste Stamina early on, yet still have a wide base of support to keep the Beyblade from falling over.

Some basic rules for Beyblade physical traits and performance:

-Heavier Beyblades spin for longer
Reason: More mass = more angular momentum, assuming the same velocity

-Heavier Beyblades are less affected by impacts from opponents, both linearly (recoil) and angularly (being slowed down by contact with the opponent, or spin-equalized against an opposite spin opponent)
Reason: More mass = more inertia, assuming the same velocity

-Beyblades with an outwards mass distribution (like Phantom) spin for longer and are less affected angularly by impacts (more resistant to loss or gain of spin power)
Reason: Mass further from the axis of rotation increases moment of inertia

-Beyblade RPM is determined by mass and weight distribution - lighter, inwardly distributed Beyblades (like Jade) will typically reach higher RPMs than heavier, outwardly distributed Beyblades (like Genbull^2)
Reason: Lower rotational inertia with the same launch energy will result in a higher-speed launch

-More circular Beyblades have less recoil; more angular sections of a Beyblade (like Wyvang's head or Variares all over) will produce a strong attack and strong recoil. Sloped sections (like on Begirados, Balro, Omega, and Pegasus) will also produce strong attack, but with less recoil.
Reason: Sloped sections act like ramps to deflect forces outwards; outright collisions with angular sections convert much more rotational energy into linear kinetic energy, resulting in a much more powerful (and much more recoil-y) attack

-Contacting an opponent far from the axis of rotation will cause significantly more of an effect (both in terms of Attack and Stamina) than contact closer in (like with a short Beyblade hitting only 230).
Reason: Points further from the center of rotation move faster than points closer to the center; forces exerted further from the center exert more torque


If I think of any more I'll post them as well.
Oh my goodness Cake, that is super helpful, thank you! Question though, why would you ever want a lighter Beyblade? It seems to be just worse.
I believe previous stamina types have been fairly light because of the holes in them to let more air pass,I think that makes sense (I'm only in 6th grade so it might be wrong).However more recent stamina wheels are heavier on the outside to spread out the weight.Thats why stamina wheels have sometimes been really good attack wheels E.G. Flash. (Once again sorry if I get anything wrong)
Nic and I have worked a lot on describing the physics involved in Beyblades and spinning tops in general and you can find all of our articles in this topic in the Beywiki Project forum, since they were written for educational purposes : http://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-Physics
well flash is good at attack mostly because its very heavy ( being 4-D and all) and is an ovalish shape, so it has 2 really major attack points

if im wrong then just know this, im in 6th grade and i know almost nothing about physics, so in otherwards you dont need to listen to the crappy guy named raiyanblader...
Oohh so I started this post when there were no replies, so excuse me if I'm redundant and go over things that others have already gone over. Kinda tired now and wanna go to bed, lol.
(Oct. 27, 2015  12:28 AM)Hammurabi8 Wrote: Oh my goodness Cake, that is super helpful, thank you! Question though, why would you ever want a lighter Beyblade? It seems to be just worse.

In many cases, the lighter beyblade is indeed just worse. There are niche uses such as getting more motion from your tip if the bey is lighter, giving a greater chance of evasion but, unless you or your launcher can't handle them, heavier beys are generally better. That's why there's such weight creep in MFB.

That said, increased weight means more gravitational force means more friction, potentially making it bad for solo spin times. That all goes out the window in battle though.
Weight is good in Stamina Beyblades if :
1 - it is especially focused on the perimetre of the Beyblade, to make use of the Flywheel Effect;
2 - it is not too distant from Attack types' weight, otherwise the Beyblade would definitely get knocked out on the first hit.
One problem I'm having researching Beyblades is that people keep giving me examples in the [Metal Wheel] [Clear Wheel] [Track] [Bottom] format, but I'm not sure how to go about looking the individual pieces up. The wiki has only been marginally helpful, is there a comprehensive database somewhere?
Sorry for misunderstanding you earlier!
(Oct. 27, 2015  4:03 AM)Hammurabi8 Wrote: One problem I'm having researching Beyblades is that people keep giving me examples in the [Metal Wheel] [Clear Wheel] [Track] [Bottom] format, but I'm not sure how to go about looking the individual pieces up. The wiki has only been marginally helpful, is there a comprehensive database somewhere?

Ah, we are currently in the process of merging our previous wiki, Beywiki, into the Beyblade Wiki. There are some pages we have really not had the time to transfer over there yet, but hopefully with me linking it to you now, you can find our Beyblade Parts List and find all the parts you are looking for and which Beyblade they come from.
Ain't no thing Bey Brad, I could've worded it better. I'm super pumped to learn more about Beyblades and start winning our mini tournaments.

And thanks Kai, that helps a lot
Hey all! My name is Roschan, and I'm Travis's (Hammurabi8) lab partner. Thank you guys so much for all your enthusiastic responses, your answers have been extremely helpful. We have a few more questions if you all still want to help. To start, does the way the beyblade spins (clockwise vs counterclockwise) have any affect on how well any of the three types of beyblades perform?
(Oct. 27, 2015  6:51 PM)The Beyblaster Wrote: Hey all! My name is Roschan, and I'm Travis's (Hammurabi8) lab partner. Thank you guys so much for all your enthusiastic responses, your answers have been extremely helpful. We have a few more questions if you all still want to help. To start, does the way the beyblade spins (clockwise vs counterclockwise) have any affect on how well any of the three types of beyblades perform?

Completely, because the protrusions of the attack piece (Attack Ring in the Bakuten Shoot generation, Wheel in Metal Fight Beyblade, and Layer in Burst) end up not acting in the same direction at all; in fact, completely different contact points are being used in the opposite direction.

Furthermore, it matters a lot when put in comparison with the opponent's spin direction, but that opens up a whole universe of factors to consider hah. On top of that, being able to choose the spin direction before each round of a match like in HMS is great and offers a totally new level of customization and strategies.

Finally, being in opposite spin directions allows for Beyblade to steal spin from each other. Unless you have a Beyblade with rubber or with a design that is significantly prone to destabilising the opponent and 'borrowing' their velocity from them, Beyblades in different spin directions usually just equalise their velocity. However, you can use specific parts that help in giving an extra helping hand to spin longer right near the end, making the ultimate Spin Stealer because you do not want every battle to end in a tie, hah. People even launch weaker sometimes just to make sure that velocity is stolen from the start of the battle.
(Oct. 27, 2015  6:51 PM)The Beyblaster Wrote: Hey all! My name is Roschan, and I'm Travis's (Hammurabi8) lab partner. Thank you guys so much for all your enthusiastic responses, your answers have been extremely helpful. We have a few more questions if you all still want to help. To start, does the way the beyblade spins (clockwise vs counterclockwise) have any affect on how well any of the three types of beyblades perform?

Also, two Beyblades using offensive tips will interact very differently based on their spin direction. If both Beyblades are spinning the same direction, they will circle the Stadium at about the same speed, resulting in a much lower relative velocity (and thus less Attack power). This is the concept behind mobile Defense - minimize impacts by reducing relative velocity. However, if the two Beyblades are spinning in opposite directions, they will circle the Stadium in opposite directions as well, giving a greatly increased relative velocity, and thus much stronger impacts, and potentially higher Attack power.
This thread brings back memories of a discussion I had on here about the number of gears on a launcher or something and how that effected the RPS. I'm happy to help any way that I can.
Thank you, Poseidon. So let me get this straight, the direction it's spinning when you launch affects how it moves around the field? That's so cool, I didn't think about that.

Ok, so right now what we are working with is a bag of Beyblade parts, though I'm not super sure which generation they come from. Our Physics teacher has just collected them from garage sales. Just going through the bag, I have a couple questions

1) Do these frilly tracks do anything? Like, is it worth looking in to if the ones with independently spinning wheels and whatnot affect performance?

2) Same as above, but for all the odd kinds of plastic rings

2) Someone mentioned a metal bolt, but all ours are plastic, is that weird?

3) Does difference in ripcord length make a big difference, because we have about four different sizes

I also have a larger point of confusion about attack types, why don't their attacks also slow them down? Shouldn't "equal and opposite reaction" mean nobody can really get ahead? Or is it all in the way the metal wheels interact? Is it more about destabilizing than slowing down?
Eh, yes, all of the four things you mentioned affect the performance greatly hah. We already tested all Tracks, Metal Wheels, Faces, etc. though, so you could just look through Beywiki/Beyblade Wiki and you will see our explanations there of how each Track is different and whether it is good or bad and why.


With Attack types, yes sometimes the hit slows them down a lot, but their flat tip makes them continue moving around the stadium anyway, they only stay still when they are at very low velocity.
The point of confusion you have about attack types is due to how you are assuming they work. Attack types do not try to outspin another beyblade. The goal of attack is to send the opposing beyblade outside of the stadium. You may not experience this due to the stadium you use.
Ok, thanks for that clarification Redemption, our stadium has really high walls, so I've not seen that happen. Ok, so why would you ever want a short ripcord? Isn't longer always better?