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I thought this rotating house was impossible.

60 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
4 HN users recommended this explainer3 months2023–2024 score 3
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN likes the clear animation of how slip rings and piping let a house rotate.

Tom Scott visits a rotating house near San Diego and explains how electricity, gas and water keep working on the rotating part. It includes a 3D render of the utility connection system.

“Tom Scott did a video last year that has a great 3D render of the system” (HN, 2024)

4 recommendations · Explainers

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@isaidthis Oct 2023 Recommends
on HN thread The Midwit Smart Home
The owner of a custom rotating house in California cited a similar reason for moving. The video is worth watching but here is the relevant section: "I've had 18 heart procedures. My wife is in perfect health. The odds of me outliving her are zero...We're moving back to Coronado. This is a complex house, even though I think it's simple! For her to try and teach somebody else how to run everything and do everything would be difficult if something happened to me. So we're just kind of jumping ahead." [this video]
Tom Scott visit to a custom rotating house
@dabluecaboose Feb 2024 Recommends
on HN thread Rotating house goes up for sale in New Zealand
Unsure about this particular house in NZ, but there's one in California that Tom Scott did a video on with a very good animation of how its electricity/water/sewage slip ring works: [this video]
Animation of slip ring for electricity, water and sewage
@alargemoose Feb 2024 Recommends
on HN thread Rotating house goes up for sale in New Zealand
It’s not the same rotating house, but Tom Scott did a video last year that has a great 3D render of the system that designer used to facilitate their build! [this video]
Great 3D render of the rotating house system

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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