All the Marbles
May 16, 2016 8:15 PM   Subscribe

 
I chose purple, or course.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 8:23 PM on May 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


That was great.

SPOILER ALERT

I was pretty surprised by the red marble overtaking the white one, I wonder what changed? It happened so suddenly. Maybe it got a little boost from colliding with another marble.
posted by biogeo at 8:24 PM on May 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Agreed! Red surprised us all.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:28 PM on May 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


Marble madness.
posted by pashdown at 8:33 PM on May 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


My Dark Blue remained in fourth almost the whole time.

This basically matches my experience playing GTA Online races.
posted by neckro23 at 8:38 PM on May 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


At around 2:27 red ends up in an alternate route and bypasses three other marbles to take the #2 spot. It's just visible because, typical race camera, stares at the leader even though all the good action is back in the pack.
posted by traveler_ at 8:38 PM on May 16, 2016 [9 favorites]


Oh lime, must you always disappoint me with your utter mediocrity?

no offense, limeonaire
posted by bologna on wry at 8:38 PM on May 16, 2016 [4 favorites]


dammit, I'm never picking the back row ever again!

That was exciting! I was so sure white was going to hold the lead. Poor green fell off so much. I would've really appreciated another camera for the back half of the group, though. My poor blue started at 2nd last and then I had no idea how well it did for a while until it ended up at 2nd last at the finish. :'(

I wonder how many runs were filmed before getting one with any drama at all.
posted by numaner at 8:40 PM on May 16, 2016


biogeo: I think Red grabbed the lead because White was tired --- it's hard to keep pushing to maintain the lead like it had up till then, and White just had a moment where it needed a breather.
posted by easily confused at 8:44 PM on May 16, 2016 [4 favorites]


I'm no physics genius or whatever (I just misspelled physics twice, natch), but what are the forces at play here? Is that pure kinetic energy keeping them racing, or did the course have to run along a downward slope?
posted by bologna on wry at 8:44 PM on May 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


This other race is also good, with 33 marbles (!).
posted by numaner at 8:50 PM on May 16, 2016


I picked red from the gate because it had the biggest motor.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 8:52 PM on May 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


Oh lime, must you always disappoint me with your utter mediocrity?

no offense, limeonaire


Ha! I love marble runs. 💚
posted by limeonaire at 8:55 PM on May 16, 2016 [4 favorites]


I called this one, but there were no witnesses. And by "called it" I mean I thought the red 3-ball was the coolest marble and was rooting for it
posted by Hoopo at 8:56 PM on May 16, 2016


oh oh! This is the same one from the FPP with commentary!
posted by numaner at 8:57 PM on May 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Ah, that's where mine went.
posted by nfalkner at 9:17 PM on May 16, 2016


this might be my new favorite channel.

World Cup 2016
part 1
part 2
the Finals
posted by numaner at 9:25 PM on May 16, 2016 [3 favorites]


Wow, it's so soothing watching the marbles chase and fall.... and then the underdog takes the lead and you wind up leaning forward into your laptop shouting "GO PINK GO YOU CAN DO IT BEAT THAT PEARLY IMPOSTER" which is really not very soothing at all.

(I still think it looks like a pink marble, not a red one.)
posted by sciatrix at 9:50 PM on May 16, 2016


That was remarkably dramatic, given that it was a video of, you know, marbles and sand.
posted by quaking fajita at 9:56 PM on May 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


The red marble looks a little bigger to me. If so, it's got a bit more momentum to carry it over sand lumps or whatever.

Basically, shenanigans.
posted by notyou at 9:58 PM on May 16, 2016


I totally picked red and then was immediately disappointed and lost hope and then castigated myself for my lack of faith and thus couldn't enjoy the sweet taste of victory.
posted by stray at 10:01 PM on May 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Everyone knows if it's red, it goes faster.
Dark blue was robbed.
posted by quinndexter at 11:39 PM on May 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'm no physics genius or whatever (I just misspelled physics twice, natch), but what are the forces at play here? Is that pure kinetic energy keeping them racing, or did the course have to run along a downward slope?

Yes.

The net downward motion is what allows the marbles to trade potential energy (a higher position) for kinetic energy (their momentum = velocity x mass) as gravity pulls them downward. The momentum can carry them over intermediate rises (you can see this in the couple of cases where a bridge leads to a tunnel) but the overall direction has to be downward.

The other forces acting on the marbles are friction (a small amount when they're rolling along a smooth bit of sand channel, somewhat larger when they bump a wall) and, to a smaller extent, air resistance (usually considered negligible at these Reynolds numbers -- a fancy way of saying the speed compared to the size of the object). These eat up some of the kinetic energy gained from the fact that they're basically rolling downhill.
posted by oheso at 4:57 AM on May 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


The net downward motion is what allows the marbles to trade potential energy (a higher position) for kinetic energy (their momentum = velocity x mass) as gravity pulls them downward. The momentum can carry them over intermediate rises (you can see this in the couple of cases where a bridge leads to a tunnel) but the overall direction has to be downward.

I kept wondering while watching it how they managed a four minute video of these marbles rolling downhill. That's a lot of downhill, especially for what appears to be a beach. Then I read the description of the video:

Location: Klimduin Schoorl (near Alkmaar, the Netherlands)
Track length: ±230 meter (±750 feet)
Height difference: ± 40 meter (±125 feet)


And then I saw this picture of the location. Ah, that explains it. Carry on.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:09 AM on May 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


I need to make one of these, and also make it about ten times more chaotic.
posted by lucidium at 6:23 AM on May 17, 2016


I'm no physics genius or whatever (I just misspelled physics twice, natch), but what are the forces at play here?

Some of the marbles want it more.
posted by dephlogisticated at 6:47 AM on May 17, 2016 [9 favorites]


I was amazed that every one of the marbles completed the course. It seems like there'd be opportunities for unexpected things to happen with such a fragile and imperfectly constructed environment. But it was less fragile and less imperfect than I thought.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:29 AM on May 17, 2016


The video with commentary is so good.

"Fantastic job by blue taking that outside path!"
posted by yhbc at 9:39 AM on May 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


I love you right now, oheso!
posted by Melismata at 10:23 AM on May 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


That brown marble should've drafted sooner.
posted by Chuffy at 3:27 PM on May 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


I am a substitute teacher, and for down moments in which I've miscalculated what's been asked of me by the absent teacher, I will put in a short video to keep the kiddles from losing their shit.

If you want to see loud and pure joy at a video marble race (or any other sort of rube goldberg sort of video), a classroom of kindergartners sitting criss-cross-applesauce who are waiting for the bus home ought to be the target audience for this stuff.
posted by RedEmma at 3:55 PM on May 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


But it was less fragile and less imperfect than I thought.

He has quite few sand races and I think most of them has one or two that gets stuck.
posted by numaner at 8:31 PM on May 17, 2016


I love you right now, oheso!
posted by Melismata


We've hardly met, but .. well, sure, why not!
posted by oheso at 5:29 AM on May 18, 2016


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