Metronome Experiment

Damn 5th one up from bottom, 2nd column. Bastard just did not want to cooperate.

I noticed that too, it just wanted to be different than everyone else.

I couldn't help but notice that the platform they were sitting on was able to move. This allowed the majority of the metronomes to establish a driving force that eventually brought the others into synchronization.

I found my self leaning in and watching the last few find synchronicity then a terrible thought flooded my mind. What if this is some dastardly scare prank video.

Oh definitely. They would never have synchronized without the platform being able to sway. Every second, small amounts of energy were transferred from the swinging pendulums to the board, which was suspended by wires and relatively free to move, and some energy was then transferred back to the metronomes until a balance was struck. There's quite a lot to learn and understand from this simple experiment.

In fact, this has been the mechanical blueprint for many attempts at perpetual motion machines, such as clocks, trains, even space ships. When NASA speaks of a space probe picking up speed by using one of the planets as a "sling shot", this is in part how it works. Theoretically, scientists put a giant pendulum on the moon that swung in time to its rotation around the Earth. But even this would not accomplish infinite perpetuity, since all the bodies in our solar system are slowing down.

There was also talk a few years back about putting a space elevator in geostationary orbit attached by carbon nanotubes. The elevator, anchored at the equator, could ride the tubes, delivering people and cargo. It would be held in place by a counterweight in space, stabilized by centrifugal force and gravity competing against each other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

Unfortunately, gravity, friction, distance, and so on, will eventually end all motion. Energy will one day dissipate completely, resulting in the heat death of the universe, according to most current mainstream theories. String theorists, however, see a long, strange trip ahead. Those guys are half nuts, half genius.