Possibly the Best ‘Pendulum Wave’ Contraption Ever Built
Sixteen bowling balls + an acceleration of gravity = prepare for three minutes of staring:
Large-scale demonstration of the interaction between period and pendulum length: “The length of time it takes a ball to swing back and forth one time to return to its starting position is dependent on the length of the pendulum, not the mass of the ball.”
“A longer pendulum will take longer to complete one cycle than a shorter pendulum. The lengths of the pendula in this demonstration are all different and were calculated so that in about 2:40, the balls all return to the same position at the same time — in that 2:40, the longest pendulum (in front) will oscillate (or go back and forth) 50 times, the next will oscillate 51 times, and on to the last of the 16 pendula which will oscillate 65 times.” [http://www.arborsci.com/cool/pendulum… / http://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harv…]
Here is one from New Zealand. It lacks the weighty swing of a bowling ball in momentum and that nice clinking sound, but it looks fantastic:
Penduluminosity, a giant pendulum wave machine made by Craig Neilson and Reza Fuard for Art in the Dark, Auckland 2013.
