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The Chaos Machine (Double Pendulum)

Step 10Video.

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16 comments

Sep 12, 2007. 4:45 AMeviloverlord says:

Very nice. Just curious - Has anyone tried a triple pendulum? Does it still exhibit the same chaotic behaviour or would the extra link damp the movement too much?

Sep 24, 2007. 12:59 PMpowerfool says:

here's the triple pendulum:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/toriyama/private/pendulum6.html

But I don't know what it would be like with friction etc...

Aug 25, 2010. 12:19 PMPAWZ says:

I love it. It's as hypnotic and similar to the 'Woman Falling Through Bubbles' but which I think is also slightly disturbing :-s ...but maybe that's just me!? http://www.guzer.com/animations/bubble_girl.php

Aug 23, 2010. 12:34 PMSeelos says:

Raise your hand if you spent more than 4 minutes playing with this. *raises hand*

Aug 22, 2010. 11:14 PMbutterknife says:

Reminds me of Poi spinning.

Jun 23, 2009. 9:38 AMMathias Re'eh says:

dude thatsa awesome! thank!

Feb 8, 2009. 12:02 PMadarnell says:

awesome link. thanks

Jan 27, 2009. 2:32 PMj626no says:

i just played around with the masses some. it started going so fast that it exploded and the only thing left on the screen was one mass, everything else was off the screen.haha

Nov 30, 2008. 1:04 AMsssssbooom says:

thank you that was fun

Mar 4, 2008. 3:05 PMn0ukf says:

I let that run a while and when I came back to it, it was going faster. I guess they discovered the perpetual motion machine in that simulation. :D

Aug 23, 2010. 2:09 AMWingDings says:

A teeny bit of damping would sort that out, and make it more realistic.

Sep 3, 2009. 8:49 PMsgt_pinky says:

No friction assumption and creeping error in the integration method (which I assume they used Euler integration which suffers from substantial error creeping in the longer the simulation runs - compared to Runge-Kutta integration).

Aug 22, 2010. 7:37 AMder_fisherman says:

Why is the video missing?

Mar 9, 2009. 4:39 AMTrustYourTechnologist says:

SWEET i have have made things like before but never just for physics

Sep 6, 2007. 4:35 PMPearlZenith says:

This is really sweet, I think I"m going to make one, so that on nights when I can't sleep, I have something to amuse myself with.

Feb 8, 2009. 6:13 PMcd41 says:

you should make a newton's cradle also

Feb 2, 2009. 8:10 AMmithunashok says:

Wow...that was cool maannn....Have any one tried this again? I am sure its called "chaos machine" bcoz no matter any no of time u try,its not going to trace this path.Its cool.... Tell me if anyone can express it mathematically or if anyone could write an algorithm to predict its motion.

Sep 12, 2007. 8:59 AMkc2dpt says:

What I'd like to see next: Stick an led on the end and swing it in the dark. Then take photos, making sure you've got a persistence of vision thing going on, and take the photos at regular intervals.

Sep 10, 2007. 2:05 PMChouette2011 says:

Sweet... My science teacher was just saying she needed to make her room less empty...

Sep 8, 2007. 1:57 PMBright Shadow says:

well... uhhh... it's definitely very flippy!

Sep 6, 2007. 3:15 PMRocketManDave says:

Crazy, but what is it proving?

Sep 7, 2007. 10:23 AMJames (pseudo-geek) says:

its own coolness.

Sep 7, 2007. 10:46 AMRocketManDave says:

A resounding success then!

Sep 6, 2007. 10:50 PMpostfach says:

That's pretty cool, I'd like to know why it has the nick-name "Chaos Machine" though? I watched this twice and it looks like there's a pattern in there, and the way it moves could probably be expressed mathematically somehow (although I would never claim to be able to do this myself) and thus predicted (which wouldn't fit the conventional definition of chaos). During my musings though, I have found a definition of chaos (in respect to physics) which infact would apply (I think i've just answered my own question here) "Choas: Complex dynamical behavior characterized by a lack of dominant periodicity and great sensitivity to initial conditions." Almost a pointless comment really, cool project though, something I would consider making if I had the time, it would make a good conversation piece.