http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwVDDxoKBk4

@charliem That's what I thought at first too, but I don't think it's magnets. First of all, the metronomes are all set to the same frequency, so the phases are all that need aligning. The surface they are all on is swaying, probably at some random phase determined by the average phase of all the metronomes. Ultimately, that little force is going to pull all of the metronomes into phase with itself and thus with each other.

The platform on which they are are sitting is not stable and moves with the metronomes, thus becoming it's own metronome and influencing the direction of the lot.

Without that influence, I am unconvinced they would all have synchronized.

ya but,
fuckin' magnets, how do they work?

Out on the sway bench, there arose quite a clatter.

Works on people too.

http://youtu.be/eAXVa__XWZ8

>> ^Sagemind:

The platform on which they are are sitting is not stable and moves with the metronomes, thus becoming it's own metronome and influencing the direction of the lot.
Without that influence, I am unconvinced they would all have synchronized.


No, they wouldn't. That's the whole point. If you put the metronomes on a movable surface they all co-ordinate. If you just put them on solid ground they won't.

This is just how World War II started

>> ^Kofi:

This is just how World War II started


I was gonna say, this is Ouija board level shit-The moment these things synched-up you have no idea what unspeakable horrors transpired at that very moment....This is irresponsible and unpredictable.

*asia

Adding video to channels (Asia) - requested by chingalera.

*music

Adding video to channels (Music) - requested by ant.

Check out the far right straggler at 2:20

Before they start it, if you listen close enough, you can hear all the monkeys on the typewriters in the next room.

I know how it feels. That was me in school. >> ^deathcow:

Check out the far right straggler at 2:20

Ah phase locking: http://salt.uaa.alaska.edu/dept/metro.html

Here's one to ponder: is the entropy of the system going up or down?

Dammit! Somoene kill my dupe please http://videosift.com/video/32-metronomes-synchonize-themselves-automatically

Sorry, I should have linked that YT vid in sarcasm tags.
Well aware that its coupling each of them via resonance damping, and magnets have no role to play in this one.

So I'm wondering what happens if they're set to different frequencies.

Not impressed with anything less than 34

They establish a natural equilibrium with their environment, but you humans do not.

>> ^deathcow:

Check out the far right straggler at 2:20
Straggler? Non-conformist.



But they beat us all down, eventually. Get in line, sheep!

3 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

If the frequencies are close, they still synchronize. So says crotchflame's link above.>> ^ReverendTed:

So I'm wondering what happens if they're set to different frequencies.

Up. The answer is always up. It's a law. In this case, it's the amount of energy randomly dissipated through sound, the unwinding of the springs, and other movement. Unless you're being cheeky, in which case pretend I said something witty and didn't just kill the joke by explaining it.>> ^crotchflame:

Ah phase locking: http://salt.uaa.alaska.edu/dept/metro.html
Here's one to ponder: is the entropy of the system going up or down?

Actually, the answer is known as coupled oscillation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillation#Coupled_oscillations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG7W6Dr5mZY

\m/

I saw these guys live once, it was a real banger of a show. My favorite part was when all the metronomes were in sync.

>> ^messenger:

Up. The answer is always up. It's a law. In this case, it's the amount of energy randomly dissipated through sound, the unwinding of the springs, and other movement. Unless you're being cheeky, in which case pretend I said something witty and didn't just kill the joke by explaining it.>> ^crotchflame:
Ah phase locking: http://salt.uaa.alaska.edu/dept/metro.html
Here's one to ponder: is the entropy of the system going up or down?



I was being a little cheeky. The entropy is going up but not only because of dissipation in the metronomes themselves: even if they were perfect, the system's entropy would increase as the coupled oscillators synchronized. I like it because it's a system moving towards what seems to be a more ordered state as the entropy increases.

Another free example: the gravitational collapse that turned a disordered molecular cloud into our current, well-structured solar system generated an enormous amount of entropy.

>> ^draak13:

Actually, the answer is known as coupled oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillation#Coupled_oscillations


Oscillators have to be coupled to phase lock but not every coupled oscillator phase locks.

I'd imagine very few of them phase lock, no? Most of them result in chaos, I'd think, assuming a double pendulum counts as coupled oscillation.>> ^crotchflame:

>> ^draak13:
Actually, the answer is known as coupled oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillation#Coupled_oscillations

Oscillators have to be coupled to phase lock but not every coupled oscillator phase locks.

>> ^messenger:

I'd imagine very few of them phase lock, no? Most of them result in chaos, I'd think, assuming a double pendulum counts as coupled oscillation.>> ^crotchflame:
>> ^draak13:
Actually, the answer is known as coupled oscillation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillation#Coupled_oscillations

Oscillators have to be coupled to phase lock but not every coupled oscillator phase locks.




You're right: a double pendulum is a coupled oscillator and is a good example. It's a coupled oscillator with multiple normal modes that can give it a complex motion even for small oscillations where it isn't chaotic - some would argue that at larger amplitudes it's no longer a simple oscillator so a lot of the terminology in use here doesn't apply. The point is that it doesn't settle into one coupled mode that is stable against perturbations the way phase locked oscillators would.

So would two pendulums of the same length hung from the same string (like on the Wikipedia page) be considered in phase, even though they have opposite patterns? What about the Wilberforce pendulum? Is it considered to be in phase?>> ^crotchflame:

You're right: a double pendulum is a coupled oscillator and is a good example. It's a coupled oscillator with multiple normal modes that can give it a complex motion even for small oscillations where it isn't chaotic - some would argue that at larger amplitudes it's no longer a simple oscillator so a lot of the terminology in use here doesn't apply. The point is that it doesn't settle into one coupled mode that is stable against perturbations the way phase locked oscillators would.

>> ^messenger:

So would two pendulums of the same length hung from the same string (like on the Wikipedia page) be considered in phase, even though they have opposite patterns? What about the Wilberforce pendulum? Is it considered to be in phase?>> ^crotchflame:
You're right: a double pendulum is a coupled oscillator and is a good example. It's a coupled oscillator with multiple normal modes that can give it a complex motion even for small oscillations where it isn't chaotic - some would argue that at larger amplitudes it's no longer a simple oscillator so a lot of the terminology in use here doesn't apply. The point is that it doesn't settle into one coupled mode that is stable against perturbations the way phase locked oscillators would.



The two pendula on a string can be put into motion where they are in phase but they aren't phase locked because they don't have to stay that way. Like the example being shown on the wikipedia entry, they are mode coupling where one oscillates but loses amplitude as the other begins to move - this is the motion it will be in if you start one of them but not the other. If you set them both swinging at the same time from the same height they would be in phase but if you then perturbed them they would go into a more complex modal behavior so you couldn't say they are phase locked.

The Wilberforce is the same - if you just twist the spring, it will be twist back and forth for a while until it loses energy to the pendulum motion; it will eventually stop as the pendulum takes over and then it will start coupling back the other way. You can put the system in phase where the rotations and the swings are aligned in phase but the strong coupling allows them to share energy more rapidly and to take on more complex modal interactions.