This project is rated as moderate. A tool must be used and it is advised that the project be supervised by an adult.
Materials needed: Pencil (2) (or a similar stick), paper, pin, knife (or file)
What is a GeeHaw Whimmy Diddle? It is a gadget that doesn't do anything but is a lot of fun to make and play with. You may have seen one and it might have been called by a different name. Here is a picture of one:
The one shown is made using a pencil. However, you can use a small stick, a dowel rod, or any thin piece of wood.
1. After selecting some sort of rod, cut notches in it at about one-half inch intervals as shown in the picture.
2. Cut out a "propeller" from a piece of stiff paper or light weight card stock. Make it about one half inch wide and two inches long.
3. Put a hole in the center of your "propeller."
4. Put a pin through the hole of the "propeller" (it must be a loose fit); and push the pin into the end of the rod you have prepared (in the picture, the eraser on the end of the pencil holds the pin.)
Now comes the fun part. Hold the GeeHaw Whimmy Diddle in one hand and with a second pencil (stick, etc.), rub back and forth over the notches of the GeeHaw Whimmy Diddle. If you do it correctly, the little "propeller" will spin around the pin.
Can you make the "propeller" spin the opposite direction? Did you get it to spin at all? If you can't do one or the other and are desperate to know the secret you can look at the link shown.
Once you know how to do it, show your friends. Let them try. They can watch you do it and still not be able to see how you do it!
Why is this called a GeeHaw Whimmy Diddle? It is a whimsical (whimmy) device that you diddle with. In bygone days, people trained their horses to turn right or left when they called out, "Gee" or "Haw." To make your demonstration more mysterious, call out "Gee" and make the gadget spin one way, then call out "Haw" and make it spin the other way.