# Jelle's Marble Runs **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 16, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jelles-marble-runs/855807 "2020-06-16T22:12:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jelles-marble-runs/855807/1 "2020-06-16T22:12:42Z")
I’ve been getting into Jelle’s Marble Run events on YouTube and I’m addicted. I don’t think I could enjoy events like this that are much longer than 10 or 15 minutes but these are short enough to be a lot of fun and I love the little touches they have like the “safety marble”. There a whole season of races coming up and I’ve been catching up on past events and also been watching the current Cravendale Last Marble Standing events over the past few days. I’m noticing that some marbles keep winning and some seem like serial losers. So my question is: what it is that makes some marbles more successful than others? Obviously something in the manufacturing but could I predict the results by looking at the type of marble? Videos here: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYJdpnjuSWVOLgGT9fIzL0g/featured](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYJdpnjuSWVOLgGT9fIzL0g/featured) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jelles-marble-runs/855807/2 "2020-06-17T13:34:31Z")
Off the top of my head, surface irregularities and off-center internal bubbles would both cause a marble to roll irregularly, which would slow it down. Come to think of it, even a centered internal bubble would slow it down, because it’d decrease the weight-to-moment-of-inertia ratio. And if there’s any variation in density (some made out of glass and some out of plastic, for instance), that’d matter, too. For a non-deformable track, denser marbles would fare better, but for a sand track, too much density might be a liability. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jelles-marble-runs/855807/3 "2020-06-17T15:32:54Z")
Definitely the best of the marble racing channels. He does love to say “penultimate lap” every time. I like the ones that are made to resemble motorsports than the Olympic type videos. Good place to kill a few minutes. I personally favor Snowy and the rest of the Snowball team. Some marbles do seem to roll faster. I suspect they all don’t have equal masses or roughness of the surface. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jelles-marble-runs/855807/4 "2020-06-17T16:06:02Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Definitely the best of the marble racing channels. Hands down; it’s no contest. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jelles-marble-runs/855807/5 "2020-06-17T16:20:02Z")
Are there other marble based channels? ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jelles-marble-runs/855807/6 "2020-06-17T18:09:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Off the top of my head, surface irregularities and off-center internal bubbles would both cause a marble to roll irregularly, which would slow it down. > > Come to think of it, even a centered internal bubble would slow it down, because it’d decrease the weight-to-moment-of-inertia ratio. > > And if there’s any variation in density (some made out of glass and some out of plastic, for instance), that’d matter, too. For a non-deformable track, denser marbles would fare better, but for a sand track, too much density might be a liability. In the last marble standing the different events might favour different qualities. But I guess the purest, roundest and most uniform marbles will usually triumph.