The following was handed out at a juggling teach-in in at the Explorit Science Center in the fall of 2001. It has been slightly updated in the summer of 2002.

What Is Juggling?

The purist might say you are only juggling if more objects are being tossed than there are hands to toss them. That is, if one person uses one hand, tossing at least two objects qualifies as juggling and if two people work with all four hands, they have to be tossing at least five objects. (Most two-person "passing patterns" start with three objects per person.)

However, most jugglers also regard manipulating things like "cigar" boxes, yoyo, "diabolo" (chinese yoyo), "poi" (balls tied to chains or strings, often set on fire), object balancing, plate spinning, and so forth as "juggling".

Science in Juggling

While many jugglers don't think about juggling scientifically, there are quite a few scientists and mathematicians who juggle and have applied their talents to this art. In some cases the result has been proof that a proposed juggling pattern is not possible, and in others that previously unimagined patterns are possible. Some of these areas of scientific study are:

Famous Jugglers

There are a number of famous people who juggled (and famous jugglers who were people!):

Web Links

Getting Juggling Equipment

Local Juggling

The Damento (DAvis/sacraMENTO) Jugglers are people interested in juggling who meet in Davis on Tuesday evenings 6-9, and in Sacramento on Friday evenings 6-9. Kids are welcome, though we request that parents or guardians provide supervision for their children. In the summertime we meet in Central Park in Davis, and in McKinley Park in Sacramento. In winter, meeting locations vary with availability. We hope our Sacramento winter location will be the Trinity Cathedral gym, at Capitol and 27th. If you have suggestions for space in Davis, please let us know! Contact Jeff either way.

Some notable local events are: