Description:
A wrench shown spinning across the picture frame.

Label Text:
Spinning Wrench disrupts the sense of symmetry that dominates many of Abbott’s other images. The wrench does not seem to move with a direct, purposeful manner but appears to flutter or wobble. Closely following the neck of the wrench as it travels across the frame, we see a row of evenly spaced points (each marked by a black “x”). This is the wrench’s center of mass—the spot at which the wrench could be placed on the tip of a finger and balance perfectly. The center of mass travels across the frame at a constant speed, while the rest of the wrench rotates about it. Physically, this motion is identical to that of a spinning wheel.

-Emma Thackray ’18, Society of Physics Students, Mount Holyoke College (Oct. 2017)

Tags:
science; tools; movement; patterns; paths

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+1983.21.5

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