Synchronization of Metronomes

Five metronomes are set to 176 bpm and placed on a Foam Core board. When empty cans are placed underneath, the board is free to move from side to side and the metronomes are able to influence each other into synchronization. When the cans are removed the metronomes are no longer physically coupled and some of them begin to fall out of step.

Our demonstration is a copy of one that Bryan Daniels (Ohio Wesleyan University) made for his student research work: http://go.owu.edu/~physics/StudentResearch/2005/BryanDaniels/index.html

For more details on our setup see:
http://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/synchronization-metronomes