History Main / WhenThingsSpinScienceHappens

* Spiral Power is the crux of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', [[spoiler:and the reason the ScaryDogmaticAliens are trying to kill everybody.]] It's also the theme of a FauxlosophicNarration delivered by Leeron. Although considering which {{Anime}} we're talking about perhaps it might be more like "When Things Spin Science Collapses."

* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' deals with almost every situation involving science or technobabble by spinning or running in a circle at super-speed.
* Franchise/{{Superman}} in UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} could even stop tornadoes and TimeTravel by doing so.
** [[http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=33&Itemid=52&limitstart=10 An example of "spinning = time travel"]] at Superdickery.com.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanGothamKnight'' (Field Test) Batman employs a powerful EM field generator to stop bullet-fire, normally no practically sized device would be capable of this, but hey, it spins; it must work.

* The time machine in the 2002 remake of ''Film/{{The Time Machine|2002}}'' is a cool-looking clockwork SteamPunk mechanism with many spinning parts that projects a glowing spherical force field in which it travels through time. Which was partly inspired by [[Film/TheTimeMachine1960 the 1960 version]], which had a huge disc on the back. Fun fact: it had 365 pegs around the edge. (So is the time machine off one day every four years?)

* The Doomsday device in ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' spun faster as it got closer to exploding.
* In the movie ''Film/TheLawnmowerMan'', the insane protagonist strapped himself into one of those gyroscope contraptions with the hoops, and after much spinning, his mind was projected into virtual reality. The idea being to allow his body to move and reorient freely in all directions to match appearances inside the [[{{Cyberspace}} virtual space]].
* In ''Film/{{Contact}}'' the huge alien-contacting machine has concentric rings that spin around each other on two axes. In the novel these are named "Benzels" after the inventor of the merry-go-round.
* ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'':
** Doctor Octopus's machine in ''Film/SpiderMan2''.
** Also, the particle accelerator in ''Film/SpiderMan3''.

* The machine to restore Agent K's memories in ''Film/MenInBlackII'' spins around.
* The early model of the neuralyzer in 1969 from ''Film/MenInBlack3''.
* The Ragnarok Engine in the first ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}'' movie.
* C-3PO's skeletal form in ''Franchise/StarWars Episode I'' had a silver spinning thing inside his head. That would be his brain, according to the novels.
* In ''Film/IvanVasilievichChangesProfession'' Soviet film, Shurik's time machine has many little spinning parts, as well as generous amounts of smoke and mirrors.

* Examples from ''Film/StarTrek2009'': Ambassador Spock's ship, with three separately-rotating... things which are obviously scientific and important because they have a [[PowerGlows glowy thing]] in the middle.
* The time-warping gizmo in ''Film/LaraCroftTombRaider''.

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:

* In ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', how ''Serenity'''s engines function is never explained, other than it must spin to work.
** According to the director, the engine is a gravity drive, which still doesn't explain why it has to spin.

* The Ryan Industries building in ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' contains a few rooms that feature huge spinning wheels. Presumably these are part of some mechanical equipment, but why they specifically intrude into corridors and the like seems to have no practical purpose. Knowing Ryan, the ones in Hephaestus are likely there just to show off.
* The Cyclotron stage in ''VideoGame/DeadOrAlive 2 Ultimate''.
* The ''Ishimura'' in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' has her artificial gravity created by a "gravity centrifuge".

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fez}}'' Gomez travels to another planet through a "star gate" made of concentric rings that whirl around as it activates. It's an obvious ShoutOut to ''Film/{{Contact}}''.
* Each Garden in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' has a massive spinning ring that presumably keeps it in the air. So do the airships in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''; at one point, this becomes a plot point when the characters deduce that an airship is about to crash because its "glossair rings are stopping".

** The Tantalus Drive-Core of the original ''Normandy SR-1''.

* When ''VideoGame/Persona3'''s [[RobotGirl Aigis]] activates her [[OverDrive Orgia Mode]], the headphone-like disks on the side of her head spin with a loud whirring sound and emit a thin wisp of smoke. Possibly justified if they happen to be fans, or other kind of cooling device.
** Discussed and Averted in the sequel, ''VideoGame/Persona4'', in which Kanji is upset that the medical tests the party undergoes did not include being placed in a centrifuge.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and ''JLU'' used this on occasion.

* The machine to restore Agent K's memories in ''Film/MenInBlackII'' spun around.
** The early model of the neuralyzer in 1969 from ''Film/MenInBlack3''.

* In just about every ''Series/{{CSI}}'', centrifuges are some of the most visually impressive pieces of equipment in many laboratories, especially biological ones, but they don't really give you all the answers.

* Spinning "throbbers" like the Beach Ball of UsefulNotes/MacOS X, spinning hula hoop in [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows]] Vista and above, hourglass in XP and earlier, and partial circle used in Website/YouTube and other Google properties, all [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this trope. They're just looping videos played for the user's amusement, and indicate that the computer has acknowledged the request and is working on it.

* In ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', ships have rotating sections which appear to be gravity generators. (Note that this is a concept that has been seriously proposed in RealLife; for example see the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Three O'Neill Cylinder]].)

** A few episodes later, a large device that's supposed to do something with isolating transuranic elements (which in the real world would involve a particle accelerator) has lots wildly rotating components on several different axis. One of which wangs Carter in the head, setting up the cause of the remainder on the episode.

* The Tau Cannon (a.k.a. Gauss Gun) from ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' has a set of rotors that spin up to speed as the secondary fire mode is charged. Partially justified as it seems to be some sort of electromagnet contraption[[note]]see Real Life below, namely the power plant section[[/note]].

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipler_cylinder Tipler Cylinder.]] When this baby spins up, [[Film/BackToTheFuture you're gonna see some serious shit]]. [[DontExplainTheJoke Because it's a]] [[TimeTravel time machine]]. To be fair, it would actually have to be infinitely long to possess this property, but aside from that, it's hard to get more science-from-spin than a time machine powered by spinning.

* In ''Film/InnerSpace'' the miniaturization process at the government lab spins Tuck's minisub at absurdly high rates before breaking it down and shrinking it. The more advanced and streamlined lab the bad guys use skips the spinning and gets straight to the breaking down and shrinking.

** The Xindi superweapon in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' has numerous spinning parts, which end up aligning several lens when it's time to fire it.
** In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', a duplicate robot Kirk was made by a spinning alien doohickey. Lampshaded by Doctor Ira Graves when he encounters it in the spinoff novel ''[[Literature/StarTrekImmortalCoil Immortal Coil]]'': "Why in the world would the platform need to spin? It doesn't make any sense. It's almost like... a lot of hand waving. Idle motion."

* ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellet'': It's not clear how the Ring Drive works (all we know is that it's ''really'' cold in there), but since it's apparently ring-shaped by necessity, there's likely spinning involved.

In RealLife, technology is usually not visibly exciting to watch in action. For example, your computer (while it has fans and drives which spin) does not actively move while in operation. In many cases, the fact that the machine or technology is operating at all can be somewhat oblique to the naked eye. Witness the many people who call into Tech Support claiming that their [[ComputerEqualsMonitor computer]] isn't working... [[DiscreditedTrope because]] [[IdiotBall it isn't turned on]]. When it comes to various visual media, [[RuleOfPerception movement equals operation]], which allows the audience to recognize that the machine is actually working or operational. Even if there is an obvious, prominent signifier of power (big green light, flashing red lights, etc.) positioned on the machine, in the eyes of many -- it's not actually ''on'' until something starts moving.

* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Ex Machina'' revisits most if not all of the different types of Artificial Intelligence the various crews encountered over the years. When the android-making apparatus from "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" appears, the scientists studying it marvel at the brilliance of it, but even they can't explain why the thing spins around when it runs.

* Spinning black holes can theoretically do the same thing, but they'd have to be infinitely old and you'd have to be a single particle in order to actually reach the closed timelike curves without getting vaporized by the mass instability at the inner horizon. Otherwise, you slam into other stuff that fell into the black hole before you (including your own body parts) with such an energetic collision that every particle in your body becomes a mini-black hole.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tih1b5A0JzE Homouroboros,]] the [[https://polymathically.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/do-the-robot/ Dancing Robot]], and the [[https://polymathically.wordpress.com/2015/04/04/weekly-photo-challenge-spinning-ring-in-light-and-shadow/ spinning rings on the curved table]] at the San Francisco Exploratorium.
* The [[https://polymathically.wordpress.com/2015/07/25/foucault-pendulum/ Foucault Pendulum]] at the California Academy of Sciences.

* The very first steam engine. No, not Watt's. The ones built by [[OlderThanYouThink Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria (AD 10-AD 70)]] A bronze sphere on an axle, connected to a water tank itself set above a fire. The steam rises from the tank and into the sphere, and then exits through nozzles pointed in opposite directions. The sphere turns, and science happens

* The ''Ishimura'' in VideoGame/DeadSpace has her artificial gravity created by a "gravity centrifuge".

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_Disk Euler's Disk]] ([[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY pronounced "Oiler"]], not "Yoo-ler") is a spinning coin toy that uses inertia to keep spinning longer and faster as it goes, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3o0R2hStiY eventually the kinetic energy causes it to rumble and spin at ridiculous velocity before eventually coming to an abrupt stop]].