Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Another Contribution from the g-man

This is neat.

Note: The brief foreword below will increase your appreciation of the visual linked below that; no wonder mathematicians probably have near mystical experience when watching these extraordinary waves of pendulums*


You may recall from a Mechanics course  that the period of a pendulum is proportional to the square root of the length of the line suspending the weight - i.e., the longer the pendulum, the slower it swings.

Harvard students built a device with a series of 15 pendulums in a row, each one slightly longer than its neighbor, then set them in motion and filmed the result.

The resulting patterns in this short video are quite fascinating to watch
.

 
Read the article before starting to watch the video.  




Click Pendulum Waves

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