Like this Slinky, I also like to cheat by stepping on the edges. posted by box at 2:22 PM on May 23, 2012 [5 favorites]
That person should take better care of their exercise equipment. That belt is in ruins. posted by beaucoupkevin at 2:22 PM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
Keep it up, Slinky! You'll be fit and healthy in no time! posted by aubilenon at 2:23 PM on May 23, 2012 [8 favorites]
this is too much of a metaphor for my life for me to take.
*stares out the window with french music playing* posted by The Whelk at 2:25 PM on May 23, 2012 [8 favorites]
Again, the timeless struggle of slinky against machine. Tragic in its relentless tenacity. Tenacious in its tragic relentlessness. Relentless in its relentless tragedy. Tragic in its relentless tenacity... posted by rudster at 2:25 PM on May 23, 2012 [13 favorites]
this is too much of a metaphor for my life for me to take.
That person should take better care of their exercise equipment. That belt is in ruins.
The belt was in fine shape, ages ago, when that slinky's great great grandparents first began the long trek to the front of the treadmill. Since then the family has bloomed, and waned; at their peak, a dozen slinkies were all stepping in tandem toward their reward, surging forward and falling back, birthing children, losing loved ones to old age or tragic falls, their hearts forever set on the rolling horizon as weather tarnished their coils and eroded the once-pristine surface of the treadmill.
And now, it's just that slinky, the lone scion of his clan, left to finish the journey, or fall to the wayside trying. The last of his kind. posted by cortex at 2:32 PM on May 23, 2012 [37 favorites]
Slinky, you don't have to go it alone. Its all right to walk in pairs. posted by Joey Michaels at 2:32 PM on May 23, 2012 [6 favorites]
Like so many of us, it stumbles from time to time, but unlike many of us, it walks with such purpose, such...swagger.
I'm a little envious of its indefatigable attitude.
I want the end clip to be the slinky holding up a gladius and bellowing ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED posted by elizardbits at 2:37 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
you don't have to go it alone, Its all right to walk in pairs
When there was only one set of slinky-prints, that was when I carried you, my elastic helical child. posted by CynicalKnight at 2:41 PM on May 23, 2012 [17 favorites]
I know just how it feels. posted by Thorzdad at 2:43 PM on May 23, 2012
One of the top comments on YouTube: Nearly shit my pants at 1:40. posted by vegartanipla at 2:47 PM on May 23, 2012 [3 favorites]
When there was only one set of slinky-prints, that was when I carried you, my elastic helical child we got ourselves hopelessly kinked together and tangled up and they finally just said the hell with it and chucked us behind the toybox. posted by nebulawindphone at 2:49 PM on May 23, 2012 [3 favorites]
Two words.
Slinky racing. posted by eriko at 2:55 PM on May 23, 2012
I don't believe this is real. The slinky never looses any potential energy so it can't keep going.
I want to see someone do the experiment where they put the slinky on a long flat road in a steady breeze. posted by All Out of Lulz at 5:18 PM on May 23, 2012
I don't believe this is real. The slinky never looses any potential energy so it can't keep going.
The slinky is moving down a slope with each step, just as if it were headed down a fixed grade on a road. That it's not getting anywhere in the long run is a function of the "road" moving beneath it; the treadmill's movement is introducing energy back into the system. This would be more trouble to fake than to set up for real. posted by cortex at 5:32 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
It is actually quite interesting to see how often the Slinky auto-corrects when it encounters the edge of the belt. posted by localroger at 5:34 PM on May 23, 2012 [3 favorites]
The guy from the office next to me just came in to ask me please to keep it down, and why in hell was I shouting "RUN, SLINKY, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"? posted by kandinski at 5:52 PM on May 23, 2012 [3 favorites]
Didn't we already do the plate of beans on the treadmill experiment? Or am I thinking of Mythbusters? posted by louche mustachio at 5:53 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
Shouldn't it take flight soon? Wasn't that the lesson? posted by inigo2 at 5:56 PM on May 23, 2012
Didn't we already do the plate of beans on the treadmill experiment? Or am I thinking of Mythbusters?
Yes. I was referring to this but I was apparently being too subtle. And I misspelled "lose". posted by All Out of Lulz at 6:00 PM on May 23, 2012
It is actually quite interesting to see how often the Slinky auto-corrects when it encounters the edge of the belt.
I know. The first time it got close I was like "so...it just falls off and then sits there for 13 minutes?" When it corrected, I immediately started imagining how Snell's Law could apply here... posted by DU at 6:29 PM on May 23, 2012
Somewhere, someone will get a graduate degree by explaining how this thing could go on for so long. By explaining the auto-correction thing. Quantitatively.
And a professor who didn't even believe in the research potential wll take credit. posted by localroger at 7:57 PM on May 23, 2012
"The stumble at 1:43 is the most harrowing scene in film so far in 2012." Kottke posted by bonefish at 9:56 PM on May 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
Somewhere, someone will get a graduate degree by explaining how this thing could go on for so long. By explaining the auto-correction thing. Quantitatively.
I won't be able to quantify it because I'm not a math nerd, and, woah, fuck man, springs in motion - but I'll put on my layman's hat and describe the course correction in plain English:
The slinky is on a moving inclined plane, doing what slinkys do - storing and releasing potential energy from gravity as kinetic energy. Energy is going into the slinky from the motion inclined treadmill and being released as it's pulled by gravity down the treadmill.
When it reaches the edge of the treadmill it's landing on the raised edges of the frame, which have a height of approximately a centimeter or two compared to the bed of the treadmill.
Since the slinky is approaching this raised edge at an incidental angle, and since the slinky is of a certain diameter, when it encounters that edge, only a portion of the cross section of the slinky lands on top of the edge of raised frame each and every time.
This introduces a tilt to the foot or cross section of the slinky, a tilt that's inclined away from the edges, more or less perpendicular to the long access to the treadmill frame and treadmill bed.
When the slinky flops over and takes it's next "step" along the treadmill and the mass of the slinky reaches it's momentary resting state as "collapsed" as a cylindrical coil, the slinky is a tilted cylinder. The momentum carries over and is directed back towards the center of the treadmill by this tilt in the direction of the tilt (give or take) as the currently "up" end of the slinky falls over for it's next step.
There may be some dragging effect from the moving treadmill still moving beneath the slinky as it's partially off the treadmill, but this "automatic" course correction would still happen if the slinky was walking down a stationary inclined plane with similar raised edges.
If the diameter of the slinky were much larger or smaller, or if the raised edges of the frame had a tilt/camber sloping away from the center of the treadmill - the slinky would walk right off the edges if it could clear the first raised step, or rest more than 50% or so of it's diameter/footprint over the raised edge.
Further, assuming a theoretical Platonic ideal of a perfectly formed slinky, a perfectly smooth treadmill and a precise speed control of the treadmill (combined with simplified "perfect" Newtonian physics - the slinky could indeed walk forever at a constant pace without deviating from it's relative position on the treadmill.
Which, thankfully, is preposterous and unwelcome in our chaotic and dynamic universe. Because that would be really boring. posted by loquacious at 11:20 PM on May 23, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by davidjmcgee at 2:16 PM on May 23, 2012 [1 favorite]