Don Pettit likes to play with a yo-yo. In space. In zero-G. And because he’s a NASA astronaut, he gets to do just that.

He also gets to make up new tricks that would be impossible on Earth.

“You’ve got all of these neat pieces of physics working on this,” Pettit explains, “and it’s good to understand the physics of your recreational activities. … You can impress people by talking about the physics of your yo-yo.”

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“If you’re a guy,” he goes on, “just think, you can impress the gals by talking about the physics of how your yo-yo works. … If you’re a gal … again, learn the physics, and when you talk about the physics of how the yo-yo works … you can impress the guys. And of course there’s going to be some guys that won’t be impressed because they don’t like physics. You don’t want to hang around those kind of guys anyway.”

Pettit’s dreams of yo-yos spicing up a geek’s love life may be unrealistic. But his zero-G tricks are beautiful.

Via io9

This video was uploaded to YouTube by PhysicsCentralAPS on August 9, 2012.