Elaine, I’ll have a go at this and hope I get it right :) (If not, Jason please correct me!) The metronomes get synchronized when they’re on the board on the soda cans because the same board is moving under them all the same way. If you move a metronome it will swing in response to the movement.
The board can’t move until it’s lifted onto the soda cans because of friction. I suppose if you oiled the table so there was no friction it might work without soda cans :)
The swinging metronomes exert various forces on the board which is averaged out into one back and forth motion (because one board can only move one way) and then transmitted back to the metronomes making them all swing the same way.
It works something like that.
If a group of people decided to pool their resources so they all had the same amount, and handed in varying amounts, and received an average amount back, that would be similar, except it would involve cooperation and choice rather than simply being the way physical forces work.
thanks - that makes perfect sense now that you have spelled it out.
Regarding people in groups - I do think there is a thing called “group think” that can and does happen. And, I think it is similar to the metrodomes keeping the same beat.
The metronomes become synchronized because the energy is shared between them just as Helen describes. The board simply acts as an insulator to ensure that the energy exerted has nowhere else to go but into the other metronomes.
People are quite different though. Human behaviour tends to conform to an accepted “norm” within a group through social pressures. People want to be liked. Behaviour is unconsciously and consciously modified to adjust to what is perceived as “good” so that they can be better liked. Good behaviour is rewarded and bad behaviour is punished, perhaps in subtle and minor ways.
The physics of motion and the psychology of behaviour change are not closely related. As humans though we do see patterns in things so it makes sense that we’d try to understand our human behaviour in a physical effect like the metronomes. I think that both are interesting but for very different reasons.
Actually the psychology behind seeing patterns is interesting in its own right. The same mechanism that allows a baby to identify her mother’s face also allows an adult to see the face of Jesus in a toast burn or a shadowy face in the pattern of a martian mountain range. It’s the same process that allows us to make a leap and bring together many different factors in a Eureka moment of scientific clarity (right or wrong) or even to read from the pattern of squiggled ink on a page.
Elaine, yes, I was thinking about ‘group think’ too - it definitely happens that one powerful influence can move lots of people’s thinking/emotions the same way; I’m not so sure about the other part though where the powerful influence is based on the collected individual thoughts and emotions. Sometimes the powerful influence is imposed on others without having been derived from their own thoughts/emotions in the first place. I’m probably overthinking this analogy, anyway :)
Jason wrote:
The physics of motion and the psychology of behaviour change are not closely related. As humans though we do see patterns in things so it makes sense that we’d try to understand our human behaviour in a physical effect like the metronomes. I think that both are interesting but for very different reasons.
I agree.
And as you went on to say, humans are always looking for patterns and connections.
sorry for the delayed response - the CEC happened and absorbed all my time.
To get back to this - I get what you are saying about about how the metronomes respond because of the shared energy vs humans and the psychology of change…
And yet, I can remember being a teenager who happened to walk through an area where a band was playing and all the girls were screaming AND thinking how stupid ONLY to realize that I had started screaming. Once I became aware, I stopped myself. I was pretty shocked that I had done that.
And then, I also know that I can be perfectly calm only to become terribly agitated by being in a room with agitated people - even today - when I am “awake” I notice what is happening to my heart beat, blood pressure, etc. and begin using relaxation techniques to calm myself. The best way to describe it, is to say I feel like I am absorbing other peoples feelings/emotions even without talking with them to know why they are agitated.
So for me, I experience it as shared energy…like the metronomes. :)
Elaine, as an analogy that works fine. I wouldn’t use it though, I’d prefer a term like mimicking behaviour to “absorbing” but that’s just me. As social animals we have a predisposition to act in a certain way in certain situations, we get caught up in emotionally charged events and empathise with others caught up in them.
It’s what gives us “mob mentality” and what gives us social cohesion. Good or bad it is just the way we’ve evolved.
Comparing it to a physics experiment is fine but the human mimicry and energy sharing only seem alike when they are not. They are two separate and distinct phenomena.
I love language but it is so easy to take what one person says and add a new meaning to it. I do get what you mean when you say “I feel like I am absorbing other peoples feelings” but you aren’t actually an emotion sponge. Even though that would be cool.
I give pets human characteristics. I give them human-like names. My computers have human names too, Derek and Emmett. I give the temperamental printer several human characteristics including an evil sense of humour. I’m saying this so you know that I understand what you mean.
Unfortunately my printer cannot be reasoned with like a human when it decides :) to jam and stop working. I’ve tried threatening it but it just sits there and sulks.
When ever I work with others - I have to explain that when I’m talking to check to see if I’m talking to them or my computer.
We used to have a car named, Betsy. Great car - 1986 Honda Accord LXi - gave it to my youngest daughter in 2002 when it had 300,000 miles on it. She drove it til she bought her new car at about 310,000 - and sold it to her boyfriend. When he bought his new car - he called and wanted to know if I wanted her back as she still ran fine. He still misses her. (BTW - he’s now my son-in-law).
I told him to pay-it-forward as long as Betsy was safe. :)
Comment by: Jason Horton
1I remember an A level physics demonstration with pendulums swinging from the same horizontal rope that showsed the same thing.
It really is cool.
Comment by: Helen
2I don’t think we did that in A level physics - evidently you did cooler experiments/demonstrations than us!
Comment by: Elaine
3So, why does it work? I didn’t do physics - A or B or C…
What is the significance of moving them to the soda cans?
Would this have sync’t if he had left them on the table without the cans?
Do human beings do the same thing if in a group for enough time?
Comment by: Helen
4Elaine, I’ll have a go at this and hope I get it right :) (If not, Jason please correct me!) The metronomes get synchronized when they’re on the board on the soda cans because the same board is moving under them all the same way. If you move a metronome it will swing in response to the movement.
The board can’t move until it’s lifted onto the soda cans because of friction. I suppose if you oiled the table so there was no friction it might work without soda cans :)
The swinging metronomes exert various forces on the board which is averaged out into one back and forth motion (because one board can only move one way) and then transmitted back to the metronomes making them all swing the same way.
It works something like that.
If a group of people decided to pool their resources so they all had the same amount, and handed in varying amounts, and received an average amount back, that would be similar, except it would involve cooperation and choice rather than simply being the way physical forces work.
Comment by: Elaine
5thanks - that makes perfect sense now that you have spelled it out.
Regarding people in groups - I do think there is a thing called “group think” that can and does happen. And, I think it is similar to the metrodomes keeping the same beat.
Comment by: Jason Horton
6The metronomes become synchronized because the energy is shared between them just as Helen describes. The board simply acts as an insulator to ensure that the energy exerted has nowhere else to go but into the other metronomes.
People are quite different though. Human behaviour tends to conform to an accepted “norm” within a group through social pressures. People want to be liked. Behaviour is unconsciously and consciously modified to adjust to what is perceived as “good” so that they can be better liked. Good behaviour is rewarded and bad behaviour is punished, perhaps in subtle and minor ways.
The physics of motion and the psychology of behaviour change are not closely related. As humans though we do see patterns in things so it makes sense that we’d try to understand our human behaviour in a physical effect like the metronomes. I think that both are interesting but for very different reasons.
Actually the psychology behind seeing patterns is interesting in its own right. The same mechanism that allows a baby to identify her mother’s face also allows an adult to see the face of Jesus in a toast burn or a shadowy face in the pattern of a martian mountain range. It’s the same process that allows us to make a leap and bring together many different factors in a Eureka moment of scientific clarity (right or wrong) or even to read from the pattern of squiggled ink on a page.
Comment by: Helen
7Elaine, yes, I was thinking about ‘group think’ too - it definitely happens that one powerful influence can move lots of people’s thinking/emotions the same way; I’m not so sure about the other part though where the powerful influence is based on the collected individual thoughts and emotions. Sometimes the powerful influence is imposed on others without having been derived from their own thoughts/emotions in the first place. I’m probably overthinking this analogy, anyway :)
Jason wrote:
I agree.
And as you went on to say, humans are always looking for patterns and connections.
Comment by: Elaine
8sorry for the delayed response - the CEC happened and absorbed all my time.
To get back to this - I get what you are saying about about how the metronomes respond because of the shared energy vs humans and the psychology of change…
And yet, I can remember being a teenager who happened to walk through an area where a band was playing and all the girls were screaming AND thinking how stupid ONLY to realize that I had started screaming. Once I became aware, I stopped myself. I was pretty shocked that I had done that.
And then, I also know that I can be perfectly calm only to become terribly agitated by being in a room with agitated people - even today - when I am “awake” I notice what is happening to my heart beat, blood pressure, etc. and begin using relaxation techniques to calm myself. The best way to describe it, is to say I feel like I am absorbing other peoples feelings/emotions even without talking with them to know why they are agitated.
So for me, I experience it as shared energy…like the metronomes. :)
Comment by: Jason Horton
9Elaine, as an analogy that works fine. I wouldn’t use it though, I’d prefer a term like mimicking behaviour to “absorbing” but that’s just me. As social animals we have a predisposition to act in a certain way in certain situations, we get caught up in emotionally charged events and empathise with others caught up in them.
It’s what gives us “mob mentality” and what gives us social cohesion. Good or bad it is just the way we’ve evolved.
Comparing it to a physics experiment is fine but the human mimicry and energy sharing only seem alike when they are not. They are two separate and distinct phenomena.
I love language but it is so easy to take what one person says and add a new meaning to it. I do get what you mean when you say “I feel like I am absorbing other peoples feelings” but you aren’t actually an emotion sponge. Even though that would be cool.
Comment by: Elaine
10thanks Jason - :)
My husband frequently points out when I give inanimate objects - human characteristics - so vice versa would also be true. ;)
Or is that cam (clear as mud)
Comment by: Jason Horton
11I give pets human characteristics. I give them human-like names. My computers have human names too, Derek and Emmett. I give the temperamental printer several human characteristics including an evil sense of humour. I’m saying this so you know that I understand what you mean.
Unfortunately my printer cannot be reasoned with like a human when it decides :) to jam and stop working. I’ve tried threatening it but it just sits there and sulks.
Comment by: Elaine
12When ever I work with others - I have to explain that when I’m talking to check to see if I’m talking to them or my computer.
We used to have a car named, Betsy. Great car - 1986 Honda Accord LXi - gave it to my youngest daughter in 2002 when it had 300,000 miles on it. She drove it til she bought her new car at about 310,000 - and sold it to her boyfriend. When he bought his new car - he called and wanted to know if I wanted her back as she still ran fine. He still misses her. (BTW - he’s now my son-in-law).
I told him to pay-it-forward as long as Betsy was safe. :)