Not much astronomy news lately or at least nothing interesting to me. The new Mars rover found a steambed but nothing really unexpected about that so I just decided to post again about it if it finally finds what it came for in Mars -- a definite sign of life.
And so what is it about that title? Well I had no idea what a menotrome was before I saw this video I'm about to share. Tradition ally it looks like this:
I looked it up and according to wikipedia its a tool for musicians to keep their music tempo. Although I can't remember when and where I know I saw one in the past and that to me it looked like a reverse pendulum that someone could use to hypnotize someone.
Watch this video and I'll discuss more after.
What just happened was - 32 menotromes were set on a table on same tempo but started at different intervals. And while they were at a chaotic tempo at start, they somehow managed to synchronize on their own after just a couple of minutes or so.
So what happened?
Physics. If you noticed, the table is not solid. It is a little flexible and probably also suspended with strings. As the rod of one menotrome sway from side to side it transfers a small force that gives small motions to the flexible table. Which in turn transfers it to the other monotromes that in small increments speeds up or slows downs the other monotromes. This transfer of force will continue and increase until everyone matches the speed and direction of movement of the original menotrome.
Here's a blooper: Observe the second pink one at the rightmost corner, it will take it a while to realize it is the only one left doing the wrong direction. Or maybe it's just me but it looked funny like a soldier marching out of order with the rest before finally realizing it.
And so what is it about that title? Well I had no idea what a menotrome was before I saw this video I'm about to share. Tradition ally it looks like this:
I looked it up and according to wikipedia its a tool for musicians to keep their music tempo. Although I can't remember when and where I know I saw one in the past and that to me it looked like a reverse pendulum that someone could use to hypnotize someone.
Watch this video and I'll discuss more after.
What just happened was - 32 menotromes were set on a table on same tempo but started at different intervals. And while they were at a chaotic tempo at start, they somehow managed to synchronize on their own after just a couple of minutes or so.
So what happened?
Physics. If you noticed, the table is not solid. It is a little flexible and probably also suspended with strings. As the rod of one menotrome sway from side to side it transfers a small force that gives small motions to the flexible table. Which in turn transfers it to the other monotromes that in small increments speeds up or slows downs the other monotromes. This transfer of force will continue and increase until everyone matches the speed and direction of movement of the original menotrome.
Here's a blooper: Observe the second pink one at the rightmost corner, it will take it a while to realize it is the only one left doing the wrong direction. Or maybe it's just me but it looked funny like a soldier marching out of order with the rest before finally realizing it.
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