The Art and Science of Pendulum Waves

I confess that this week’s post is a little more simple than usual. There’s no music, and almost no sound. Essentially it’s just one shot – with a twice-used additional side angle – of fifteen suspended pendulum balls, seen head on. This simplicity is what makes it so awesome though, as because of that simplicity, your entire understanding of science and beauty come colliding together.

To me, there is something very enchanting about waveforms. There’s something…elemental about the way waves transfer energy on both the very small levels of photons, and the largest gravitational forces that move and shape the universe. More often than not, our understanding of waves and waveforms are from the long-forgotten theoreticals of graph paper and high school trig, the visualizer from an MP3 player, and real world of bodies of water. Sometimes though, you find a video that answers a question that not only had you never thought to ask, but whose answer you could never have pictured in your mind:

What happens if I set fifteen staggered pendulum balls in motion at the exact same time with the same amount of kinetic energy?

What happens, if you’re me, is that you end up watching the video a dozen times throughout the day just to marvel at the beauty.