Most engineers will immediately recognize the amusing double pendulum in action here from school. This simple display of physics in motion never fails to captivate. Any time there’s one out in the open, a crowd of people tend to gather around and watch. The unpredictable and chaotic appearance of the motions is usually only compounded […]
We covered Flickr user yamamo2’s (and his father’s) first high-performance double pendulum build back in 2009. The first version would swing for about 10 minutes, without added energy, after being started. The latest version swings for fully twice that, as the embedded video—all twenty-two minutes of it—thoroughly demonstrates. I haven’t seen any info about the design changes required to achieve this level of performance, unfortunately.
Today marks the first anniversary of the birth of Polish-born, Franco-American mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot since his death on October 14. Mandelbrot worked in a variety of mathematical disciplines, but is best known as the “Father of Fractal Geometry.” He was well eulogized by the New York Times, and, more personally, by Rudy Rucker. Today he would’ve been 86.
Build a simple device that exhibits chaotic behavior and makes an excellent science project or conversation starter. Thanks go to William Gurstelle for the original article in MAKE, Volume 22. To download The Double Pendulum video click here and subscribe in iTunes. Check out the complete Double Pendulum article in MAKE Volume 22 or you […]
Build a simple device that exhibits chaotic behavior and makes an excellent science project or conversation starter. Thanks go to William Gurstelle for the original article in MAKE, Volume 22. View the PDF of this project. and then subscribe to MAKE magazine for other great projects you can do over the weekend.
