Morbidly Curious Humans Cut Open a Sphero BB-8 for Science

Some humans braver than you or I took it upon themselves to perform the dark deed required to find out just what makes Sphero’s BB-8 bot run. Many have suspected the use of gyroscopes, counter-weights, and magnets (how do they work?), but uBreakiFix just had to find out for sure. So here’s your warning now: BB-8 carnage follows.

According to their cutie-dissection, uBreakiFix found out that their suspicions were correct: there’s a large counterweight and a gyroscope working in tandem to keep BB-8’s head upright. The head remains “attached” to the body by way of magnets. There are two little wheels on the inside that help the ball roll around, and give BB-8 its go-go attitude. No word yet on why we all find it so damn cute, though.

But what’s been made most obvious by this video is my complete and utter attachment to a droid. The sounds I made as they were using a rotary tool to cut him open were unnatural. In fact, I can feel myself welling up right now as I write about it.

Excuse me, I need a moment.

(via Uproxx)

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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