Ah, the double pendulum. Nowadays, with science becoming a bigger and bigger thing, at least in our neck of the woods, these things become rather prevalent in science centers.
Why? Because they’re simple. Make two sticks stick to each other, fix them to a wall and set them in motion. The rest of it is kids watching in disbelief, going home and wanting to build it, too.
You can believe it, though. This is chaotic motion. We know everything in principle. We know even how the different forces interact. And yet, we still cannot, either by maths or intuitively, predict how that thing is going to move.
Isn’t that awesome?
So, what does it take to geek out about two sticks and a loose connection between them? Chaos theory, that’s what! 🙂
