Scientists finally crack the age-old secret of hula hoops

NEW YORK — Remember that colorful plastic ring that swept through playgrounds and living rooms in the 1950s? The humble hula hoop might seem like a simple toy, but it turns out there’s some fascinating physics behind how it manages to defy gravity while spinning around your waist. In fact, until now, even this ubiquitous activity wasn’t understood at a basic physics level.

A team from New York University’s Applied Mathematics Laboratory reveals that successful hula hooping requires more than just hip action – it demands precise body geometry and movement patterns that create a unique form of mechanical levitation.

“We were specifically interested in what kinds of body motions and shapes could successfully hold the hoop up and what physical requirements and restrictions are involved,” explains Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the study’s senior author, in a statement.

Much like a helicopter needs specific blade movements and angles to stay airborne, a hula hoop needs particular conditions to maintain its mesmerizing orbit around your body. Using robotic experiments and mathematical modeling, researchers discovered that two key factors determine whether a hoop will stay up or come crashing down: your body must have both “hips” (a sloped surface) and a defined “waist” (an hourglass curve).

To investigate these dynamics, the team created miniature robotic hula hoopers in NYU’s Applied Mathematics Laboratory. They built their mechanical performers at one-tenth human size, using 3D-printed bodies in various shapes – cylinders, cones, and hyperboloids (hourglass shapes) – to represent different body types. These diminutive dancers were set in motion by motors that replicated human hip movements, while six-inch diameter hoops were launched around them. High-speed cameras captured every wobble and spin.

When they tried using a simple cylinder, the hoop always fell. A conical shape proved equally unsuccessful – though in a more interesting way. Depending on where they released the hoop, it would either climb up the cone until it flew off or slide down until it dropped. But when they tested an hourglass-shaped robot, something magical happened: the hoop found a stable sweet spot just below the narrowest point of the waist.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that the exact form of gyration motion or whether the body’s cross-section was circular or elliptical didn’t matter much. “In all cases, good twirling motions of the hoop around the body could be set up without any special effort,” Ristroph notes. What really mattered was having the right combination of slopes and curves.

These findings might explain why hula hooping appears effortless for one person while it’s an impossibility for another. “People come in many different body types—some who have these slope and curvature traits in their hips and waist and some who don’t,” Ristroph observes. “Our results might explain why some people are natural hoopers and others seem to have to work extra hard.”

Some findings validate what hula hoop instructors have known intuitively for years. For instance, beginners often have better luck with larger hoops – not because they’re easier to see or grab, but because their greater radius actually helps create more stable forces. Surprisingly, the weight of the hoop doesn’t matter nearly as much as its size.

Another counterintuitive discovery involves the direction of spin. While many people envision the hoop spinning inward against the body, successful hooping actually involves “direct outward twirling,” where the hoop maintains contact with the inner side of the body while its center stays positioned outward from the spinning axis.

The mathematics behind hula hoop levitation could have applications far beyond playground physics. “As we made progress on the research, we realized that the math and physics involved are very subtle, and the knowledge gained could be useful in inspiring engineering innovations, harvesting energy from vibrations, and improving robotic positioners and movers used in industrial processing and manufacturing,” says Ristroph.