I've always heard that scientists say that yoyos won't work in space because of the lack of gravity but I've been yoyoing for over four years now and I'm sure that's false. There are five categories of yoyoing you will find at a yoyo competition and depending on the style of play, gravity doesn't have as much to do with what's going on than the player does. I'm absolutely positive that I could get at least three (1a, 2a and 5a) out of the five styles of play (1a through 5a) to work in zero gravity. Most of yoyoing is done with string tension in the way of both how much twist you have in the string and how you tug on it, friction between the string and the friction surface (most people are familiar with the classic sunburst as found in Duncan Butterflys and Imperials) and centrifugal force. Most competitive yoyo players nowadays use a bind when playing 1a and 5a to get the yoyo to return. A bind is a controlled knot and I can do that to my yoyo in any direction and still have it come back to my hand. Perhaps someone could get a few professionals in one of those big planes that simulates zero gravity to find out....

The problem is that certain tricks require gravity. The simplest of all: Sleeping. Once it gets to the end of the string, there is nothing to keep it down there spinning. It will immediately start back up due to the elasticity of the string.

And you'll never Rock The Baby.

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I've always heard that scientists say that yoyos won't work in space because of the lack of gravity...

Really? I've never heard a scientist even mention a yo-yo. And most scientists I know would be able to do some yo-yo dynamics in their head.

Just out of curiosity, did you meet these scientists at a dinner party?

There are videos out there of astronauts playing with yo-yo's on the space shuttle.

Take a look at NASA's video archives.

Thanks for the pointer, wv_engineer.

Everything you want to know about yoyos in space--demonstrated!

Wow, thanks for the link! Next time I come up with an idea, I'll try searching youtube for a video clip first.

This was something I remember one of my junior high school teachers telling me but apparently either they were mistaken or I am. No biggie.

Anyhow, I really appreciate all of your feedback. You guys are great.