Balancing Bird
A paper bird perches impossibly on its beak — a hands-on lesson in centre of gravity.
Start building ↓The build
Cut the bird
Cut a wide-winged bird shape from card.
Weight the wings
Glue a coin near each wingtip, slightly forward of the beak.
Find the point
Test-balance on your fingertip near the beak.
Perch it
It balances on its beak as if defying gravity.
The wingtip weights pull the centre of gravity forward to sit below the beak, so the bird balances stably on that single point.
A closer look
An object is stable when its centre of gravity lies below or directly over the support point; the weights engineer exactly that.
Variables to test
- 1 Move the weights back — when does it tip?
- 2 Add more weight — does balance get easier or harder?
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