A thousand catches a second

Nothing is holding it up. So how does it stay standing?

An electric unicycle is never actually upright. It is always falling, and always catching itself — about a thousand times every second.

What looks like balance is really a very fast recovery. That is the same control problem that governs every car on a racetrack, small enough to carry into a classroom in a single case.

This is a free forty-minute presentation for grades 6 through 12. I bring the wheel with its shell removed, fixed to a stand, so students can watch a motor argue with gravity in real time.

What students take away

How the forty minutes run

0–5The wheel balances on its stand with nobody touching it. One question: what is holding it up?
5–15Feedback loops, built from a student volunteer balancing a broom on one hand.
15–28Motors and pulse-width modulation, demonstrated live on the open wheel.
28–34Torque curves — the same math a race engineer runs on the timing stand every race weekend.
34–40The close, then questions. Every student who wants to handle the hardware gets to.

Safety and logistics

Nothing rolls and nobody rides. The demonstration wheel is bolted to a fixed stand. No student equipment use, no waivers required.

Certificate of liability insurance available on request, and I can be named alongside your organization. Background check on file.

I need a standard outlet, a projector or screen, and about six feet of floor space. One of your staff stays in the room, per your policy.

Who is giving it

I'm Brian Také. I build racing software in St. Louis — Race Terminal, a live-timing and AI-broadcast companion app, now on Google Play with an iOS release in review. I came to software mid-career, and I've ridden electric unicycles for years.

The program is built to travel: it runs from one case, and the curriculum is designed to be taught to other presenters, so a school or track can keep running it after I've gone.

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