Funny Video Clips

How to quickly and easily synchronize 5 metronomes.

Say it’s a lazy afternoon and you find yourself in a room with five metronomes. You start each one oscillating at different times so that they all end up moving back and forth, each at their own rate. You do this because you realize you have nothing else to do on this lazy day with several metronomes sitting there doing nothing. You are compelled to get them oscillating.

It then occurs to you that while these random patterns of motion and sound make for some pretty cool rhythms, you quickly discover you tire of this rather quickly. Your aim now is get all 5 metronomes to move in snyc with one another, their little arms all moving in lock-step like a row of mechanical soldiers.

How can you get them all synchronized quickly and easily?

Watch this cool video to find out. You place them on a thin plank, and then place the plank on two aluminum cans laying on their side. The metronomes are now dynamically coupled; the motion of the metronomes causes the plank to move slightly, rolling back and forth on the cans. This energy and information flow is sent and received by each of the metronomes. In no time, they are all in perfect synchronization with one another.

Pretty awesome!

So, next time you’re stuck with 5 metronomes you want to oscillate in sync, now you know how!aluminum cans information flow metronomes oscillating metronomes patterns of motion random patterns rhythms snyc synchronization