Courtesy of Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations. (Thanks for the link, Bill.) Fascinating to see what we mostly see on an electronic display such as an oscilloscope. In one minute these pendula (pendulums to those not comfortable with Latin) go through some very interesting wave motions. One of the professors suggested that “the demonstration could be used to simulate quantum revival.” The writer concluded, and I quote: “So here you have quantum revival versus classical periodicity!”
No wonder I almost wet myself!
The article mentions that halfway through the 60-second cycle, half the pendulums are at one amplitude maximum while the other half are at the opposite amplitude maximum. That occurs at the 57-second mark in the video.
Someone should build swing sets like this for playgrounds to teach kids that cooperation can actually be fun, to the outside viewer at least.
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