A mechanical model of bacteriophage DNA ejection

Single molecule experiments on bacteriophages show an exponential scaling for the dependence of mobility on the length of DNA within the capsid. It has been suggested that this could be due to the "capstan mechanism" -- the exponential amplification of friction forces that result when a rope is wound around a cylinder as in a ship's capstan. Here we describe a desktop experiment that illustrates the effect. Though our model phage is a million times larger, it exhibits the same scaling observed in single molecule experiments.