Waveforms, Beaded Chains and Wasted Tuition

Science is pretty cool sometimes, and it would be fun to do quirky things in school in the name of science. Everyone has played with steel beaded chains- especially at the DMV where they give you that clipboard and the government black ink pen that is chained to the clipboard by the beaded chain- Lord knows I’ve wasted quite a few hours at the DMV making waveforms in the beaded chain against the clipboard. It is fascinating and some pretty decent entertainment, considering that the DMV by my house recently banned cell phones.

Anyways, here is a cool physics experiment with a very long beaded chain in motion around a pully.

Now consider that this experiment was performed at MIT, one of the most expensive colleges in the Northeast. This guy’s parents wasted a couple years’ salary on tuition to basically allow him to do what he could have done for free waiting for a driver’s license.