If you place 32 metronomes on a static object and set them rocking out of phase with one another, they will remain that way indefinitely. Place them on a moveable surface, however, and something very interesting (and very mesmerizing) happens.
So given enough time, the unsynchronized beats automatically/magically start playing in time?
I call hoax. Because even (especially?) when we play really long songs, me and my band still arenât in rhythm w/ each other!
(OK, maybe it would eventually work for us, we would just require âinfinite timeâ until we wind up in rhythm. Or need to play on cruise ships only, where the stage + water act as a coupling system).
Happens with lots of humans too, who all unknowingly settle into the same step whilst walking on a moving surface (this bridge). The result causing major oscillations in the structureâŚ! (increasingly amplified = feedback loop)
I wonder if the underlying principle is the same one that was referred to in the video about sampling (I think that was posted here, might have been elsewhere). Something about the equipment aboard WWII bombers working better because the vibrations of the plane in flight introduced a degree of stability to the gears and what-not that they didnât have when on the ground â
In fact, you could prove it mathematically. As long as theyâre all on a surface that transmits some of the forces, it becomes a coupled system and they will influence each other.