Sheldon's Whip

Never be caught off guard when your friends start to slip up! Have the crack of whip at your fingertips 24/7! Know someone who always complains? WHA-PSHHH!!! Is your best friend controlled by their significant other? WHA-PSHHH! Is one of your classmates a teacher’s pet? WHA-PSHHH! With Sheldon’s whip, you will be ready to lash out justice to anyone who acts up! The whip is occasionally portrayed in popular culture in various contexts. Whips have appeared in many cartoons, television shows, videogames such as Castlevania, and numerous films, from the original Zorro to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Catwoman (2004). Often their usage is dramatic and wildly exaggerated, showing action heroes tripping or disarming an adversary, breaking furniture, or other impressive activities. One of the more popular portrayals of whips involves wrapping a fixed overhead object and then swinging from the whip across an open space. While it is possible to do so in reality, achieving a wrap strong enough to hold the body weight yet loose enough to disengage once the swing is complete is highly impractical. Further, the strain will damage or break most leather whips. In film, the effect is achieved by braiding the whip over a steel or kevlar support cable and anchoring the tip permanently to a support such as a crane or scaffolding. Many times the whip handle is attached to a concealed body harness on the actor for safety and to make the swing appear more graceful. On Mythbusters, various capabilities of whips shown in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark were tested on the "The Busters of the Lost Myths" episode. When properly trained, it is in fact possible to disarm a pistol-wielding opponent. When there is a log above a chasm it is possible to swing across using a whip and loosen the whip after the swing, but only if the log has sufficient friction. Using a high-speed camera they were able to verify that the tip of a whip can break the speed of sound.