r/oddlysatisfying • u/Apprehensive_Sky4558 • 1d ago

Synchronising perfectly

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u/pulithi_mavan 1d ago

Can someone explain why this happens?

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u/geoff1036 1h ago edited 1h ago

I know others have answered but I'd like to try my hand lol:

All the metronomes are on one rolling platform, basically all connected to the same set of wheels. This means that all the momentum of every swing is felt by every metronome, because each swing rolls the base in the direction it was swinging, and if you add up all the left and right swings at a given time you get the net force imparted on the whole "cart" at once.

Of all the pendulums, at any given time, most of them are going to be swinging one way, and the rest the other. The majority is going to be decided by which metronomes are most synced at the beginning, as they are already closer and thus take less time to sync, and thus create a bigger wave. The majority swinging one way creates a major force in that direction, and the minor force the rest create gets cancelled out and overcome, meaning that every pendulum that was going the other way gets pushed or pulled harder than it would if it was standing still or moving with the majority. This causes the minority pendulums to take one or two swings at a slightly differing speed, and the laws of energy conservation and equal and opposite reaction do their thing to average out all the forces which is what eventually syncs them all up. Each one is slowed or sped up each swing by a fraction of the specific amount it needs to be to sync, probably in some sort of observable pattern, but I digress.