Title: Gee-Haw Whammy Diddle,
Abstract: Gee-Haw Whammy Diddle is a seemingly simple mechanical toy consisting of a
wooden stick and a second stick that is made up of a series of notches with a
propeller at its end. When the wooden stick is pulled over the notches, the
propeller starts to rotate. In spite of its simplicity, physical principles
governing the motion of the stick and the propeller are rather complicated and
interesting. Here we provide a thorough analysis of the system and parameters
influencing the motion. We show that contrary to the results published on this
topic so far, neither elliptic motion of the stick nor frequency
synchronization is needed for starting the motion of the propeller.