Bottle flipping was a trend that involved throwing a

plastic bottle A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed from high-density or low density plastic. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo, milk, and ink. The size ranges from v ...

, typically partially full of liquid, into the air so that it rotates, in an attempt to land it upright on its base or cap. It became an international trend in the summer of 2016 with numerous videos of people attempting the activity being posted online. With its popularity, the repetitive thuds of multiple attempts have been criticized as a

distraction Distraction is the process of diverting the attention of an individual or group from a desired area of focus and thereby blocking or diminishing the reception of desired information. Distraction is caused by: the lack of ability to pay attention ...

and a

public nuisance In English criminal law, public nuisance was a common law offence in which the injury, loss, or damage is suffered by the public, in general, rather than an individual, in particular. In Australia In ''Kent v Johnson'' the Supreme Court of the ...

. Parents and teachers have expressed frustration at the practice, resulting in water bottle flipping being banned at several schools around the world, as well as many people calling for the practice to only be performed in private.

History

In 2016, a

viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...

of teenager Mike Senatore, flipping a water bottle at a

talent show A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather ...

Ardrey Kell High School Ardrey Kell High School is a public high school serving grades 9–12 in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The school is part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools district. History Established in 2006, Ardrey Kell High ...

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, popularized the activity.

Description

Water bottle flipping involves taking a plastic water bottle that is partially empty and holding it by the neck of the bottle. Force is applied with a flick, with the bottom of the bottle rotating away from the person. If performed successfully, the bottle will land upright. Additionally, the bottle may land upside-down, or on its cap. Doing this is significantly more difficult than flipping a bottle so it lands upright. The amount of fluid in the bottle greatly influences the success of the feat, and it has been shown empirically that filling the bottle about one-third of the way improves the rate of success. The type of water bottle also plays a role; for instance, the brand

Deer Park Spring Water Deer Park is an American brand of bottled water of natural spring origin from BlueTriton Brands, produced and marketed primarily across the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. History Following the American ...

has been noted to make the task easier due to its unique hourglass shape with a third divot. The feat is often performed with disposable plastic water bottles due to their availability, but other containers can be used as well. The bottle flip is often combined with the

Dab DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * ''Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dąb, ...

after a successful flip. The complex

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

behind the activity incorporates concepts of

fluid dynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) an ...

projectile motion Projectile motion is a form of motion experienced by an object or particle (a projectile) that is projected in a gravitational field, such as from Earth's surface, and moves along a curved path under the action of gravity only. In the particul ...

angular momentum In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...

centripetal force A centripetal force (from Latin ''centrum'', "center" and ''petere'', "to seek") is a force that makes a body follow a curved path. Its direction is always orthogonal to the motion of the body and towards the fixed point of the instantaneous c ...

, and

gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...

. In 2018, a group of students and professors from the Netherlands developed a minimal model of the water bottle flip involving conservation of angular momentum and, most importantly, the redistribution of mass along the bottle. The model estimates that the best filling fractions for water flipping lie in the range between 20% and 40%. Multiple

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

s have been created to recreate the activity; the app "Bottle Flip 2k16" was downloaded 3 million times in the first month of its release.

References

External links

The Physics of Bottle-Flipping
at

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

The Water Bottle Flip
at

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...

{{Challenges 2010s fads and trends Internet culture Internet memes introduced in 2016 Bottled water Internet memes Viral videos

History

Description

See also

References

External links