Bunch of spanners on here. @Wet Doggo "seems like you're butthurt about a joke 😅 sry about that" Assumptions are for people with poor reasoning skills. @Marvin Mestanza Oh, but you see, Alec's got the mechanical engineering, so no other engineers could possibly comprehend geometry.
The ladder rungs are offset diagonally and it turns out this matters. When the lower side of the rung hits the hard surface, it bounces up a bit, forcing the higher end of the rigid rung to be accelerated down. Since the rope on the lower end is slack as it bounces up, it doesn't affect the ladder, but the higher end of the rung has tension, so its rope is pulled down slightly. On the next rung, the same thing happens, but now the offset goes the other way, so the other rope is pulled down. In this fashion, each rope is being tugged down in an alternating fashion, resulting in a faster descent. In essence, the up bounce provides energy that speeds up the rate of descent of the ladder versus a ladder that is purely falling.
It's because the rungs are angled. When the lower end of a rung hits, the downward momentum of the entire rung is turned into a rotational force on the rung which pulls the higher end down and therefore the rest of the ladder down a bit faster.
It's mostly the slanted thingies. As they fall, they change position going to fully horizontal. That makes them pull down slightly more on the formerly higher side, in turn pulling the next one and that will pull more on the other side, thus keeping it from veering off course. 2 good counter experiments would be to do the same thing with two ladders with normal, horizontal steps and two with inclined ones, but all in the same direction (or just the 2 normal ones again but hold one side higher up I guess..)
Every time the low end of a rod hits the table it gives a slight tug downward on the other end, transferring stopping force to downward force. This speeds up the velocity of a chain ladder.
A key to this trick is the alternating slanted bars. One end of a bar hitting the table causes the other end to pull the short string due to the rotation around the center of gravity of the bar. The short string is pulled and in turn the next bar is pulled slightly. As a result, the ladder experiences more pull (downward force) compared with the other ladder.
@The Unknown It only needs to pull one side to put a force on the entire assembly. You can see it happening if you go frame-by-frame on the video - pause it and use the comma and period key to advance and rewind one frame respectively. You can see exactly what the OP and I described occurring.
@D Ziggy *_" the spin will cause yanks against the taught section..."_* *Taut. But, yes, that can also be a factor, but is not the primary one. It relies on the short string being in tension at some point after the rung contacts the pile, in order to transmit that additional accelerating force.
@Tony Rule your theory would mean that the ropes are solid that break under compression but they are still a soft connect not a hard connect so now the center of gravity is a rotation point so every pull it will only pull that side down in return the opposite and equal reaction is the other side coming back up
Look at this: when the ladder hits the table, the ropes connecting the rods get stretched into a "u" like shape facing the surface of the wall. So the force given by the rope pulls the upper rods one by one giving it more pull and in this manner the ladder falls quicker.
Energy is transfered back into the "system" accelerating the object on the left. Because the chain ladders are configured in such a way, energy transfer takes place when the ladder hits the table. This happens as the ladder hits the table because each rod becomes parallel to the table. The distance that each rod moves to become parallel to the table makes up the added acceleration by pulling the ladder downward. Again, this pulling adds additional acceleration.
This is likely a demonstration of the "parachute effect," where a falling object that is able to spread out or collapse upon impact will fall faster than an object that remains rigid. The ladder that collapses upon the table is able to present a larger surface area to the air, creating more drag and allowing it to fall faster. The ladder that avoids the table and continues to the floor maintains its rigidity and falls at a slower rate.
This is my hypothesis: When the ladder hits the table the energy pulling it down no longer remains constant and the stored energy from free fall gets transferred to smaller and smaller and therefore lighter and lighter sections gains speed due to the same amount of energy being transferred into a smaller and smaller object. This is the one I believe to be true. You may see the right ladder accelerate once it's also hitting the ground. This is why the two ladders are the same but oppositely opposed as to see where ends meet and this way you can tell when the left ladder starts accelerating. I have 0 idea why the ladder steps are slanted and am curious because there is something to it as making a traditional ladder would've been easier.
Since the rungs are angled, the table is causing them to flatten out, which pulls down on the rung above it. This alternates left to right, gradually speeding it up. Edit: Never expected my comment to get so much attention. To elaborate a bit, one needs to understand that even the ladder on the right will speed up after it hits the ground, just like the one on the left. The only reason you see the difference is because the one on the left hit the table (higher ground) before the one on the right. Also, to better see the pulling effect, don't just watch the strings close to the table. Look closer to the top of the ladder, like two or three rungs from the top after the top comes into view. You can clearly see motion in the strings that is not seen in the ladder on the right.
@TheUnorthodoxy so you're trying to say the table increases gravity on the left, and therefore makes the ladder fall faster? You really think the difference would be enough to be seen in the video? If that was the case, the ladder on the right would be pulled towards the one on the left. Before responding, watch the video again. Look at the rungs of the ladder near the top. You can clearly see rotational forces being applied to the rungs well before they hit the table. This motion is not seen in the ladder on the right, because it hasn't hit the ground yet.
@Mike Curtis even if they do not fall yo the ground that is irrelevant. The table still has a mass greater than the surrounding area, this distorts (draws closer) the mass of the other object Ladder A. Each ring incrementally increases the speed of the ladder A being drawn towards the centre of mass of the table (which does exist unlike the ground you made reference to). This is space-time (aka temporal time), this changes the perception of speed and direction as time is the only metric we have for movement, without time there is no movement and thus no attraction and thus no gravity. Time is what is changing our perspective here from our reference point the Ladder A speeds up, it increases its attraction to the table more than Ladder B towards the earth. (This experiment was done on earth right @Mike Curtis ?) Everything with mass has an attraction that attraction we call gravity. Therefore apples do not fall to earth if thrown horizontally, they are drawn TO earth by the attraction between their masses, the apple being smaller in size and mass is overpowered by earth's mass and pull measured as 1G. As the apple travels (time) the apple curves from our reference frame but from the apples it is still travelling in a straight-line we threw it on. Time incrementally curves the apple towards the earth's massive pull (gravity) without time the apple would not travel and would not fall to earth. Where's your explanation?
@TheUnorthodoxy what you're not understanding is the one on the right will also speed up just like the one on the left.... ONCE IT HITS THE GROUND. The only reason the one on the left speeds up first is because it hits the table (or higher ground) first.
The one on the left creates rotational acceleration on impact, each rod rotates creating tension in the string upward dragging down the rods. The added acceleration downward is equal to the sum of each rods contribution of rotational acceleration.
Also, it’s a little bit tricky to say “both ladders were dropped at the same time”: were they folded up, and the last rung being released first? That way, the tension on the string will be stronger on the right because the bottom rung without hitting the table continue to fall quicker.
You can see already the one with the table, right off ,(B) is increasing velocity slightly the moment it makes contact because of less mass resistance to the tensile force as it ca lapses. The one containing to free fall maintains the same mass and tensile force more or less. If they were not angled it would still have the same results because the free falling one hasn't collapsed. Did this experiment 0ver 20 some years ago when school actually still had some use.
The ladders are connected with a string so when the first side of the angled step hit the table, it produced an opposite energy for the other side to pull the strings more towards the table as well.
For those wondering, you see how the rods are alternating diagonal? When the downward part of the bottom rod hits the table, it bounces up, pulling the other side of the rod, and therefore that rope, downwards. Rinse and repeat with every rod, all pulling slightly downwards on the ladder, and now it's falling faster than the other.
@owosturm the chances are very likely I think. Every time the lower side of the pole hits the table, it forces the other side to try and equalise it’s centre of gravity, which in turn pulls the ladder marginally quicker. Where as the other ladder is in free fall and will not gain kinetic momentum because it’s stagnant, very much lost in motion
When a rung hits the table on one end, it causes the other side of the rung to accelerate ever so slightly. it gets compounded for each rung until it's very easy to see it has fallen faster than the one in complete free fall.
My initial guess is that the more of the ladder that isn't moving the less air resistance is being experienced as a whole, so the other parts begin to fall faster. The other idea is that when the ladders are held up by the top the strings are in tension, with the bottom rings "pulling" on the rungs above. So when the pieces hit the table and that tension is relieved that tension/stored energy is transferred to the rung above, pulling it down a little faster, and every rung that hits does the same.
Each angled rung hitting the table transfer's it's kinetic energy to the other side of the rung tugging on the knot times the number of rungs to determine rate of acceleration. To determine T time you need to determine the kinetic E value of one rung in free fall then apply the fulcrum value at specific angle time number of rungs. Similar to pulling in a rope hand over hand
The ladder's steps are not parallel. And they have a specific pattern. When one step of the ladder hits the floor, it creates an unbalanced force on the step, which produces a torque that pulls the upcoming step downward. The addition of force, say torque in this case, helps the ladder's top cap fall faster than the freely falling ladder.
@M Hahahahah, still no answers to simple questions and now you say I'm wrong but you won't say what's wrong because of how I am writing. Hahaha. Nice try little man, it's okay, don't worry, you can go, I won't hold a grudge against you. Keep learning physics, maybe one day you'll understand, it's okay. I wish you luck with your high school exams.
@ismael cm It is clear that you don't understand physics. And I won't even try to explain what mistakes are you making, because you are an ignorant and dumb ass with huge ego, who will never try to understand own mistakes.
Simply put - as the ladder lands on the table, the gravitational forces being used to pull the ladder down are transferred to the remaining of the ladder that has yet to fall. So it falls faster than a free-falling ladder. The only way the free-falling ladder will beat the ladder being dropped onto a table is if that ladder is dropped from a much higher height and is allowed to reach Terminal Velocity.
Never seen a ladder like that, so I assume it's relevant to the experiment. As many others have stated, the rotational force applied to each rung as it hits the desk pulls on the shorter end of the rope, in turn pulling the whole thing down faster. Right just has the force of gravity and a bit of air resistance. Left has the force of the desk pushing back on it, so, we see a reaction
Newtons law, opposite but equal reaction; When a rung hits the table, it is bounced back up slightly by the stopping force, as the rung then bounces off the table, a slight amount of extra force is pulled on the ropes to the next rung (as not only gravity it pulling on the next rung, but a slight tug from the proceeding rung that has bounced is now also applying a tiny amount of force due to the “whipping” action on the ropes). Though the many number of rungs that are performing these actions, an exponential fall rate can be observed over time.
Элементарно, палки разделены не одинаковой длины веревками. Поэтому, эта палка ударяясь о стол, слегка тянет свой второй конец. А так как этих палок не мало, в сумме, получается быстрее
This happens because each rung on the ladder is tilted. As each rung hits the table it pulls the string it's attached to downward a bit, causing the ladder to fall faster.
@John Doe The left one hits the table far earlier. The right ladder probably doesn't even hit the floor by the time the left ladder has fully collapsed. Surely you're not this stupid, are you trolling?
The strings on A have an additional tensile force applied to them when each rung falls out of axis. This is known as linear refractal preclusion, or LRP. It’s much to the same affect as when you randomly make something up on a CZcams video comment.
My guess is that the table, by stopping the fall of lower rungs, reduces overall air resistance and allows the rate of fall to accelerate slightly more than the fully falling ladder. He needs to repeat this experiment in a vacuum chamber.
It's because of the positioning of the steps when the first one hits the table it begins a chain reaction of added tensile strength together with gravity to make the ladder fall faster You can even see the fact that the rope pulls on the rest of the ladder after the first step hits the table
Is it conservation of momentum? I think the angled rungs make it so that when one end stops, that rung keeps the momentum until the other side hits, speeding up that still-falling end ever so slightly. In other words, if in free-fall a stick has x momentum, and one half of a stick abruptly stops while the other half is free to keep going, the still-moving half would have to double its speed to maintain its momentum.
Because the rungs are tilted. When the rungs hit the table, they want to lay flat, but they have to rotate first, and that angular momentum pulls down on the shorter strings, which pulls the ladder down faster.
This needs to be done with a ladder falling and the parts to a disassembled ladder falling. This way you see if the wind resistance of the rope is pulling upward to the wood, or if the wood is wide enough for wind resistance, and the straight rope when dropped can maintain its aerodynamic position.
Angle matters. As one end of the stick hits the table , it bounces a bit, which results the other end to "pull". This then happens alternatively on both sides.
The angled rungs are the key to this. As a rung contacts a surface a rotational force happens to that rung causing the free end to tug harder on it's rope. The ladder that hits first begins this repeating cycle of tugging first thus completing the cycle first, dragging the last of the ladder down first.
@Bryan Cline that is incorrect. The mechanism has nothing to do with the shape/ braiding of the rope. It has been measured and done with single strands, and usually chains. Google folding falling chain problem.
I love experiments like this I actually question random questions that almost nobody asks. Or I am probably feeling their thoughts because I have no idea why these thoughts and ideas come to me at the exact same time it's in process. Or maybe I am related or agree with people like this and perhaps they have the answer with trials and errors.
When the chains are released the tension in the chain drops nominally to zero. Because the chains always has some elasticity, this drop to zero starts an overall chain contraction that continues as the chain falls. The the left chain dropped first, this elastic contraction pulls the top of the chain down, making it go faster.
The table is doing a force on the opposite direction of the gravity, which causes the ladder itself to do an equal force responding to it, but there is a delay due to the strings not being steady, resulting on the ladder falling faster
May be because of the inclination of the steps of the ladder. When one side of each step of ladder touches the table the other side creates a pulling momentum to the strings and it accelerates the speed of the fall compared to the second ladder. This will not happen if the steps were tied horizontally !
3d Newton's law: *To every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction* The pieces of the ladder hitting the table go back up with the same and equal F (minus friction, gravity, etc etc) hence we have a -F which acts on the cords, and as a result are pulling (down) the rest of the ladder. But I am probably wrong also on this one.
Because every step on the left ladder "pulls" a little bit against the table, each time it hits the table, the upper step (resultants of carriers). If the steps were parallels, this wouldn't happen.
Due to the angle of each section, when it hits the table, it pulls the other side which is attached through the cable to the next section. The angular energy is transfered each time one side hits the table.
@SnotrocketLT4 Edit 1: you are correct. Edit 2: the only limit would be wind resistance which would cause it to reach terminal velocity pretty quickly.
@Enrico Caminiti That would require zero external forces and some net positive internal forces from something like a spring being released. So that won’t work in this type of situation.
@kylethekidable yeah I realized this shortly after commenting. I was thinking they could have demonstrated the same effect without the need for a table by using one ladder with staggered rungs and one ladder with parallel rungs. However, I cheated and looked up the experiment, and while they don’t say so explicitly, they may have had a good reason not to do it this way. In order to demonstrate that there was nothing special about the ladder in the left in particular, they ran the experiment again but with the ladders switched and got the same results. This wouldn’t have been possible using a staggered ladder, a parallel ladder and no table.
This is definitely correct, also I think the rungs glancing off each other and pulling sideways (toward and away from the camera in this clip) is also adding a component to the tensions in the cables
I believe it could be less air friction for the ladder on the right, given that the portion of ladder that is hitting the table doesn't affect in any way the rest of the object
I think it's because of the air friction, that slows down both ladders. But since the left one (B) has less and less parts remaining (hanging in the air) the overall friction force getting smaller and hence the increased speed of fall. I suppose in vacuum both ladders would have fallen at the same speed.
It is because of the angled rungs. When the lower end of the rung hits the table, the rung pivots to level out. This applies a downward force on the string accelerating that side of the ladder down. This happens with each rung.
@Brendan guys guys guys it has nothing to do with tension or shape or any of that think of it like this it doesn't matter about the beginning of the ladder it's about the end of the ladder the end of the ladder is landing earlier on one side because its destination for landing is cut in half and has a shorter distance so it's going to land sooner obviously it's the same thing like measuring the top of ladder a and it's going to land hypothetically it would land at the around the same time that be would if you watch the video
@mauze king seriously what's wrong with all of you the reason why one land sooner than the other is because it's Landing distance is shorter there's no other reason it's obviously a child could figure it out I predicted it before before I even play the video
This is a case of leverage. Imagine those ladder rings, slanted, falling in free space alone. When a slanted rigid body falls, it’s the CG that falls at the acceleration of g. So the entire slanted body is falling (and still accelerating) at uniform velocity at the moment of impact the leading tip hits th ground, however the CG is still falling with potential energy yet to expend. Draw a free body diagram! You now have a force acting downward at the CG centroid (the geometric center in this case) and have created a fulcrum where the foremost point is acting against the ground. This means the far tip gets “slung” downward; accelerating at rate approximately 2X the acceleration the CG will continue to experience until the tip is whipped against the ground and PE is zero. Imagine the simplest example of this; hold a meter stick with the 0cm end on the ground and hold the 100cm mark. Give the meter stick a leaning angle and then let go. It will topple over. The meter stick’s mean fall velocity will be the velocity of the 50cm mark, but the 100cm mark will strike the ground much faster because it must make up twice the distance during the same fall duration. In the rope latter case, you have dozens of alternating rungs with no slack. The entire ladder is in free fall so roughly equal velocity throughout. When the trailing rung tips of the rungs striking the ground are whipped down, thier tip speed exceeds the mean velocity of that rung (which was also the mean velocity of the whole ladder) and it “pulls” downward on the rest of the ladder. I believe this should occur up until terminal velocity.
When the ladder starts hitting the "ground", the long string side hits that surface first and makes the opposite side accelerate, pulling on the short string, just from that tilt. This action is repeated, etc, etc.
Easy peasy. Action-reaction Newton III! The lowest first rung hits the table on the right end first, causing an action force on the table. The table exerts an equal but opposite force UPWARDS on that right hand side stick end which transmits the force quickly to the left side of the rung. This infinite positive upward acceleration (MUCH GREATER THAN 9,8m/s^2) on the right side of the rung causes the left side of the rung to be yanked downwards (accelerate down) at the infinite rate greater than acceleration due to gravity (9,8). That increases tension in the vertical ropes greater than gravitational force, which sets off a chain reaction throughout the rungs and the ropes. This creates an overall downwards acceleration GREATER than acceleration due to gravity (9,8 m/s^2), which pulls the left ladder down faster than the right ladder.
My guess is that the one that hits the table has less surface area to fight against air resistance due to parts of it coming to rest on the table. Since the other one still has a large part of it mid air, and thus resisting the air as it falls, it falls slower.
The rungs are tied together. As each rung hits, the rope that connects them is displaced. Creating a small tug of downward force. This causes the next rung to fall a little faster. Which in turn causes a compounding domino effect with each rung that follows. Increasing the rate at which the remaining parts of the ladder fall. Making the object fall faster.
@w's sometimes a vowel re > But could there also be some shock wave traveling up the rope and the sine wave cause some slight acceleration as well?< In all experiments all physical laws take place. So you can even argue that the heat generated by rungs hitting the table affect speed of that falling ladder. The problem is how much does it affect it? In this case -- not much. BTW. A shock wave _is a type of propagating disturbance that moves _*_faster than the local speed of sound_*_ in the medium._ In the falling ladder experiment nothing like that happens.
You explained it better than I explained it lol. I think I said momentum while you said downward force. Yours sounds better and more thoroughly explained his question.
@TJ Blues awesome!! This makes more sense. The angular momentum seems like it would speed up the descent more than vibrations. But could there also be some shock wave traveling up the rope and the sine wave cause some slight acceleration as well? The angled rungs I think would also create more of a shock "ripple" in the rope. The harmonic resonant frequency would increase as the rope shortens; Like a finger sliding up a plucked guitar string.
As the one was falling and collected on table has getting less and less air drag where as the other one ladder which was free falling facing same amount of air drag throughout .
With the angle of the bottom step making contact first, it acts with slight leverage pulling on the opposite side with short string. Over time those small adjustments made it slightly speed up. Since that ladder made contact first it made it seem faster than the other ladder… but that’s just a guess.
There's nothing more eerie than a science CZcamsr asking a question and then not answering it. Edit: some of you seem to not understand that this was a joke. science youtubers usually follow up a question with a direct explanation. this video simply reminded me of the video where Michael says "Hey! Vsauce! Michael here! where are your fingers..."
it's called an anomaly . how many will guess at it ?. and how many people will actually think about it. and how many people take the challenge , find the answer and learn something. life is full of creativity, find it where you may . - DaVinci's 40 answers
The impact of the one that hit the table creates a force that transforms into a transient increase in the weight of the ladder hence there is a higher gravitational force on it so it falls faster.
If you watch closely the one that hits the table falls off the table after that. I would assume that it falls off the table at a faster speed than when it was first dropped. This probably happens because it rolls off the table at the speed at which the Earth is spinning which is faster than the free falling one on the right. My advice is use more cameras next time.
Micro stress from each hit that stresses the thread it is holding out in, if it pushes it speeds it, if it push back it's null, the thread doesn't transfer energy up but down. In repetition, it pulls the whole "ladder" faster, a little bit faster.
The angled ladder rungs are forced to rotate around their center of mass when one end hits the table, this minor rotation slightly pulls on the cord on the adjacent end. So in sum a slight downward force along the cords is applied. In conclusion this only works if the rungs are angled like this.
@jpteknoman mechanical physics baffled me in school but nuclear physics I mastered so I’m unlikely to be correct in this situation. But if one was to increase the distances from inches to feet it stands reason that air resistance would likely have an effect that can be readily seen in such a demonstration. Please, someone explain why air resistance wouldn’t explain this phenomenon.
The ladder on the left finishes landing first because the table is high than the floor and once the falling rungs stop and land on each other the point where the ladder has to stop falling gets higher and higher while the floor stays at the same height so the ladder on the right has farther to fall.
When the ladder hits the table, a force in the opposite direction will start and then go back and fasten the rate of the fall. Kinda like a spring mechanism
As the rods on the left hit the table they are no longer falling, thus the total resistance of the air is reduced. The area of falling parts decreases.
Some rungs don't hit perfectly on center, causing movement in the y axis if the x axis is parallel to the rungs on the ladder. The force of gravity going straight down remains constant, but the pull on the y axis causes an addition downward force.
As each rung hits the bottom, it creates a small moment of inertia (rotation) because one end of the rung lands first and then bounces up. When that end bounces up, it causes a slight downward tug on the other end (the side with the short string), which is still taut. This additional force causes a slightly greater acceleration to the free-falling object above.
The air drag on the ladder falling on the table is getting less since its surface area moving through the air is getting less and less, which makes it fall faster (air drag is getting reduced).
@noon neel No, it had never occurred to me to even consider such a situation. I suspect a similar string ladder but with parallel rungs would in fact do the same thing IF it was long enough, but only because some minor imperfection in the system would cause a rung to hit on one end before the other and that would start a chain reaction.
@Kirk Johnson see i agree with what you said ,but tell me did you ever imagine that phenomena before looking at this experiment video??? your reasoning is accurate ,but if the phenomena goes true for parallel rungs. i mean logically you and i both know it wont happen ,but i personally did not do the experiment so.... iam holding back
If you pause the video right after each impact, you will notice that after each impact, there is an instant where the short string to the rung above is in tension while the long string is slack. This would appear to confirm your analysis of the problem.
@noon neel No, the end that hits first experiences an upward force from the table which causes the rung to rotate ever so slightly about its center causing a tension on the opposite string and that tension pulls down on the opposite end of the rung above causing it to accelerate downward and to rotationally accelerate creating tension on the opposite string and so on and so on.
Ohhh I know this one! So when each bar hits at the edge that side wants to move up which yanks down the side connected to the shorter chain, and this happens for each rung in the lader which increases the fall speed just slightly for each rung.
I think it may be the shock of each impact imparted onto the strings connecting the ladder pieces... If you watch the video closely the strings appear the jerk the next piece down slightly. This compounded over the entire length equates to the difference you see in the end.
The one on the right has reached terminal velocity and can no longer speed up but the left one is getting hit by an upward force which give the object a small speed boost which therefore makes it fall faster than the other
Time(t)=distance (d)/speed(s) If s is the same then t changes if d changes Of course if d gets smaller t will become Smaller which means the period of the fall will be shorter 🙂
@ChefBoyareB If you look closely you will notice the one on the left is vibrating a lot more. It's gravitational pull due to the impact. Things bounce and that additional recoil as it lands the 2nd time creates a secondary pull. When you drive a car and you brake really hard your body goes forward then it goes back then it goes to its resting position that is 3 different locations. The ladder will generate gravitational pull until it stops moving.
Both ladders as they fall should have equal momentum at all times prior to the left ladder hitting the table. The moment the left ladder starts piling up on the table partial mass is stopped to zero velocity at which time velocity of the rest of ladder will increase to compensate for momentum conservation.
closer to the end the sticks on the left started to lose structure, meaning there was an interference with the strings below, and the only way to visibly interfere is to pull on the string. One of the logs snagged the line somewhere at the pileup and gave it a tiny jerk.
The rungs are deflecting in the Z direction (with respect to the viewed perspective) so the string is being pulled down at a faster speed as the rung deflects in the Z. Think of it like a connecting rod in a car engine.
The following arrangement is causing the bars to be pulled down faster on the table. 1. Those strings attached to the bars in such a way that the bars hang down tilting to approximately 10 degrees. So when one end of the bar hits the table, on the other end the shorter string is pulled down because of the impacting force going towards the other end of the bar with the shorter string.
@Miscellaneous it wasnt the mass of the planks that is causing that effect on other planks. it's the mass of the earth hence gravity... what the other guy was saying is that accumulated mass of the piling planks gets great enough to make the rest of the planks fall faster. i dont think that accumulated mass is great enough to cause that "extra pull" , hence it's negligible.
@Philip Ricafort the mass is great enough based on the speed they are falling. And based on the imbalance and bounce that the individual bars are making upon impacting on the table
I think the wind resistance is lower when the lowest part of the ladder already hit the ground and as the ladder on the left hit the ground earlier then the one on the right, the upper part of the left ladder has the lower air resistance earlier and therefore is faster for a short amount of time In my head this made sense, I'm not entirely sure though so please correct me if I'm wrong
The steps are tilted, so once the lower side hits the table, it will act as a lever, pulling on the above step at the opposite side. Since the tilt is alternating, this extra pull will be alternating between left and right, so on average both sides get a little extra pull down.
@Kyle Mullaney and you're right too, it could also be a combination of many different forces for the overall effect. I guess you would have to do a different test and change variables
@Kyle Mullaney and another question I have, you notice the rungs are only pulled by each others strings, there is slack in the lines for every rung after it lands
yes, the answer is simply Action/Reaction principle. When the left ladder hit the ground, the upward reaction will create a downward pulling force on the string.
Sir Isaac Newton would have thrived here. Equations of motion differ for each system, as does the relative amount of distance traveled. While the rate of change of speed may be initially equal (gravity is a constant acceleration), the relatively shorter amount of distance traveled in scenario B allows the tension in the ropes to do work on system B. Ground-induced work creates an impulse of kinetic energy for system B, specifically as it relates to increasing the acceleration of the falling system. First law, object in motion remains in motion--freefall. Second law postulates that an acceleration is present when the tension in the rope (a force) interacts with the mass of the table, and the mass of the system (ropes + wood). Third law postulates that the reaction of system B interacting with the table yields an equal and opposite reaction, which propagates force up the taut rope (speed depends on rope tension and wood stiffness) providing the apparent acceleration of system B (i.e., the rate of change of speed of system B). There is no external acceleration acting on system A (besides the acceleration due to gravity). Could also say the ropes in system A never experience a significant change in tension throughout the amount of distance traveled.
Wouldn’t the difference in arch lengths relative to the center of earths gravity explain this? That or the reverberations of the pvc creating a pulling force quicker….
The one on the right should have fallen sooner looking at it logically more mass = more gravitational pull but I guess the speed developed for both sides were equal initially and then when the left started to got lighter the speed increased
There is a slight "pull down" effect due to the angle at which the beams hit the surface, almost like a "leverage" effect. You can observe the additional tension transferred on the opposite side to the first side that impacts the surface. That extra energy transfer is enough to compile into a visible acceleration on the left ladder. Also, as more links impact the surface, if you focus on the further (up) beams, you can see the effect of the pull-down that I'm referring to. There are other observable events, such as the energy of the impact and the " force of the bounce" being transferred to the other ladder links.
I think it's because the free falling ladder encounters more air resistance than the one falling on the table, as the free falling one travels more in the fluid which is 'air' than the one falling on table whose overall path travelled also reduces further due to the bundling at the top of the table.
The distance traveled doesn't matter because they're falling at the same rate. This is not a measure of which ladder touches a surface first, but of why one is faster. Air resistance is equal for each space between each rung on the ladder, but your instincts that it is because the ladder is bundling onto the table is correct.
My guess is that it all goes down the the fact that the bars are inclined, explanations below for those interested ⬇️ When a bar hits the table, the hitting side comes to a sudden stop, creating an acceleration of the other side to compensate. This acceleration pulls on the string, thus accelerating the falling of the ladder... that's it! :)
Watch the table closely. When the rungs hit the table they naturally bounce up then back down. The down bounce pulls on the string putting it in tension and pulling whatever is above it down faster. If there was no string and the same experiment both sides would fall at the same rate.
Air resistance.. the complete ladder has to push more air out of the way… the ladder hitting the table, you can subtract the drag of each rung when it stops moving. Therefore it can ultimately accelerate to a higher terminal velocity.
My guess is that because the rungs aren’t parallel, when the first one hit the surface, it caused it to torque thus pulling on the opposite end. This tugged a little on the rest of the ladders and repeats every time a rung hits the surface. The tiny tugs compound until the difference is very visible. That’s my answer when looking at it on a per element basis. The math becomes a bit confusing when trying to analyze the system as a whole
Simply a matter of resistance. The ladder on the right remained falling as one long object of mass and was effected by the resistance of air throughout the entire chain. As the ladder on the left hit the table, it reduced the length of the object thereby decreasing the amount of air resistance that was effecting its free fall. Notice how the shorter the ladder became the faster it fell.
The ladder hitting the table and forming a "mass" was pulling the ladder towards it at a faster rate due to its massive, gravitational pull, whereas the freefalling ladder was not able to "build up mass" and hence a stronger, faster pull, and so continues to fall with its speed uninterrupted.
The ladder rungs are the reason for this. When the lower side of the rung hits the table, it causes the higher side of the rung to pull the short rope down faster. Forcing the whole chain to speed up.
I don't know how this happened , but i guess it works like quantum wave length which acts like gravity (the waves with the perfect or higher amplitude push the atoms behind or near them , making them come towards it )
Plot twist: he has no idea why that happened and he's genuinely asking, hoping that someone tells him in the comment.
Bunch of spanners on here.
@Wet Doggo "seems like you're butthurt about a joke 😅 sry about that"
Assumptions are for people with poor reasoning skills.
@Marvin Mestanza Oh, but you see, Alec's got the mechanical engineering, so no other engineers could possibly comprehend geometry.
The ladder rungs are offset diagonally and it turns out this matters. When the lower side of the rung hits the hard surface, it bounces up a bit, forcing the higher end of the rigid rung to be accelerated down. Since the rope on the lower end is slack as it bounces up, it doesn't affect the ladder, but the higher end of the rung has tension, so its rope is pulled down slightly. On the next rung, the same thing happens, but now the offset goes the other way, so the other rope is pulled down. In this fashion, each rope is being tugged down in an alternating fashion, resulting in a faster descent. In essence, the up bounce provides energy that speeds up the rate of descent of the ladder versus a ladder that is purely falling.
cuz every time a step hits the table it causes a jerk like a yank pulling down the ones above
They fall at the same rate but the one on the right is airborne for longer and has a longer fall so then it takes longer for it to hit the ground.
Lol
It's because the rungs are angled. When the lower end of a rung hits, the downward momentum of the entire rung is turned into a rotational force on the rung which pulls the higher end down and therefore the rest of the ladder down a bit faster.
I dunno. But I’m going with this answer.
Thank you for this knowledge.
Very clever!
Very clever !
WOW! TYVM!
It's mostly the slanted thingies. As they fall, they change position going to fully horizontal. That makes them pull down slightly more on the formerly higher side, in turn pulling the next one and that will pull more on the other side, thus keeping it from veering off course. 2 good counter experiments would be to do the same thing with two ladders with normal, horizontal steps and two with inclined ones, but all in the same direction (or just the 2 normal ones again but hold one side higher up I guess..)
Every time the low end of a rod hits the table it gives a slight tug downward on the other end, transferring stopping force to downward force. This speeds up the velocity of a chain ladder.
this is answer is explained correctly in the most simplest of terminology
I remember talking about the dynamics of chains and ropes with Prof Ruina over 25 years ago. Thanks for the memory.
A key to this trick is the alternating slanted bars. One end of a bar hitting the table causes the other end to pull the short string due to the rotation around the center of gravity of the bar. The short string is pulled and in turn the next bar is pulled slightly. As a result, the ladder experiences more pull (downward force) compared with the other ladder.
@The Unknown It only needs to pull one side to put a force on the entire assembly. You can see it happening if you go frame-by-frame on the video - pause it and use the comma and period key to advance and rewind one frame respectively. You can see exactly what the OP and I described occurring.
@Tony Rule exactly what I said am I wrong
@D Ziggy *_" the spin will cause yanks against the taught section..."_*
*Taut. But, yes, that can also be a factor, but is not the primary one. It relies on the short string being in tension at some point after the rung contacts the pile, in order to transmit that additional accelerating force.
@The Unknown No, my 'theory' does not rely on that at all. Quite the opposite - it requires the connection only allowing tension, not compression.
@Tony Rule your theory would mean that the ropes are solid that break under compression but they are still a soft connect not a hard connect so now the center of gravity is a rotation point so every pull it will only pull that side down in return the opposite and equal reaction is the other side coming back up
Look at this:
when the ladder hits the table, the ropes connecting the rods get stretched into a "u" like shape facing the surface of the wall. So the force given by the rope pulls the upper rods one by one giving it more pull and in this manner the ladder falls quicker.
Energy is transfered back into the "system" accelerating the object on the left. Because the chain ladders are configured in such a way, energy transfer takes place when the ladder hits the table. This happens as the ladder hits the table because each rod becomes parallel to the table. The distance that each rod moves to become parallel to the table makes up the added acceleration by pulling the ladder downward. Again, this pulling adds additional acceleration.
This is likely a demonstration of the "parachute effect," where a falling object that is able to spread out or collapse upon impact will fall faster than an object that remains rigid. The ladder that collapses upon the table is able to present a larger surface area to the air, creating more drag and allowing it to fall faster. The ladder that avoids the table and continues to the floor maintains its rigidity and falls at a slower rate.
This is my hypothesis:
When the ladder hits the table the energy pulling it down no longer remains constant and the stored energy from free fall gets transferred to smaller and smaller and therefore lighter and lighter sections gains speed due to the same amount of energy being transferred into a smaller and smaller object. This is the one I believe to be true. You may see the right ladder accelerate once it's also hitting the ground. This is why the two ladders are the same but oppositely opposed as to see where ends meet and this way you can tell when the left ladder starts accelerating. I have 0 idea why the ladder steps are slanted and am curious because there is something to it as making a traditional ladder would've been easier.
Since the rungs are angled, the table is causing them to flatten out, which pulls down on the rung above it. This alternates left to right, gradually speeding it up.
Edit: Never expected my comment to get so much attention. To elaborate a bit, one needs to understand that even the ladder on the right will speed up after it hits the ground, just like the one on the left. The only reason you see the difference is because the one on the left hit the table (higher ground) before the one on the right. Also, to better see the pulling effect, don't just watch the strings close to the table. Look closer to the top of the ladder, like two or three rungs from the top after the top comes into view. You can clearly see motion in the strings that is not seen in the ladder on the right.
@TheUnorthodoxy so you're trying to say the table increases gravity on the left, and therefore makes the ladder fall faster? You really think the difference would be enough to be seen in the video? If that was the case, the ladder on the right would be pulled towards the one on the left. Before responding, watch the video again. Look at the rungs of the ladder near the top. You can clearly see rotational forces being applied to the rungs well before they hit the table. This motion is not seen in the ladder on the right, because it hasn't hit the ground yet.
@Mike Curtis even if they do not fall yo the ground that is irrelevant.
The table still has a mass greater than the surrounding area, this distorts (draws closer) the mass of the other object Ladder A.
Each ring incrementally increases the speed of the ladder A being drawn towards the centre of mass of the table (which does exist unlike the ground you made reference to).
This is space-time (aka temporal time), this changes the perception of speed and direction as time is the only metric we have for movement, without time there is no movement and thus no attraction and thus no gravity.
Time is what is changing our perspective here from our reference point the Ladder A speeds up, it increases its attraction to the table more than Ladder B towards the earth.
(This experiment was done on earth right @Mike Curtis ?)
Everything with mass has an attraction that attraction we call gravity.
Therefore apples do not fall to earth if thrown horizontally, they are drawn TO earth by the attraction between their masses, the apple being smaller in size and mass is overpowered by earth's mass and pull measured as 1G.
As the apple travels (time) the apple curves from our reference frame but from the apples it is still travelling in a straight-line we threw it on.
Time incrementally curves the apple towards the earth's massive pull (gravity) without time the apple would not travel and would not fall to earth.
Where's your explanation?
@Lookup VeraZhou is the "also" meant to suggest my comment was copied and pasted?
@TheUnorthodoxy what you're not understanding is the one on the right will also speed up just like the one on the left.... ONCE IT HITS THE GROUND. The only reason the one on the left speeds up first is because it hits the table (or higher ground) first.
@Cody Elliott the egg and paperclip would only fall at the exact speed in a vacuum
The one on the left creates rotational acceleration on impact, each rod rotates creating tension in the string upward dragging down the rods. The added acceleration downward is equal to the sum of each rods contribution of rotational acceleration.
So, if the rods were straight, they would fall at the same rate, right?
Also, it’s a little bit tricky to say “both ladders were dropped at the same time”: were they folded up, and the last rung being released first? That way, the tension on the string will be stronger on the right because the bottom rung without hitting the table continue to fall quicker.
You can see already the one with the table, right off ,(B) is increasing velocity slightly the moment it makes contact because of less mass resistance to the tensile force as it ca lapses. The one containing to free fall maintains the same mass and tensile force more or less. If they were not angled it would still have the same results because the free falling one hasn't collapsed. Did this experiment 0ver 20 some years ago when school actually still had some use.
The ladders are connected with a string so when the first side of the angled step hit the table, it produced an opposite energy for the other side to pull the strings more towards the table as well.
For those wondering, you see how the rods are alternating diagonal? When the downward part of the bottom rod hits the table, it bounces up, pulling the other side of the rod, and therefore that rope, downwards. Rinse and repeat with every rod, all pulling slightly downwards on the ladder, and now it's falling faster than the other.
Had the same thought on the second playthrough.
@Tomek Stec Try it - one rod will show you how it works.
DAMN U SMART
Agree
@owosturm the chances are very likely I think. Every time the lower side of the pole hits the table, it forces the other side to try and equalise it’s centre of gravity, which in turn pulls the ladder marginally quicker. Where as the other ladder is in free fall and will not gain kinetic momentum because it’s stagnant, very much lost in motion
When a rung hits the table on one end, it causes the other side of the rung to accelerate ever so slightly. it gets compounded for each rung until it's very easy to see it has fallen faster than the one in complete free fall.
My initial guess is that the more of the ladder that isn't moving the less air resistance is being experienced as a whole, so the other parts begin to fall faster.
The other idea is that when the ladders are held up by the top the strings are in tension, with the bottom rings "pulling" on the rungs above. So when the pieces hit the table and that tension is relieved that tension/stored energy is transferred to the rung above, pulling it down a little faster, and every rung that hits does the same.
The free falling ladder still had the same air resistance while the landing one had less and less air resistance the more steps stopped moving.
Each angled rung hitting the table transfer's it's kinetic energy to the other side of the rung tugging on the knot times the number of rungs to determine rate of acceleration. To determine T time you need to determine the kinetic E value of one rung in free fall then apply the fulcrum value at specific angle time number of rungs. Similar to pulling in a rope hand over hand
The ladder's steps are not parallel. And they have a specific pattern. When one step of the ladder hits the floor, it creates an unbalanced force on the step, which produces a torque that pulls the upcoming step downward. The addition of force, say torque in this case, helps the ladder's top cap fall faster than the freely falling ladder.
@M You see the mote in your brother's eye, but do not see the beam in your own eye.
@ismael cm your ignorance harms no one, but only you.
@M Hahahahah, still no answers to simple questions and now you say I'm wrong but you won't say what's wrong because of how I am writing. Hahaha. Nice try little man, it's okay, don't worry, you can go, I won't hold a grudge against you.
Keep learning physics, maybe one day you'll understand, it's okay. I wish you luck with your high school exams.
@Didi Dogster thank you very much
@ismael cm It is clear that you don't understand physics. And I won't even try to explain what mistakes are you making, because you are an ignorant and dumb ass with huge ego, who will never try to understand own mistakes.
Simply put - as the ladder lands on the table, the gravitational forces being used to pull the ladder down are transferred to the remaining of the ladder that has yet to fall. So it falls faster than a free-falling ladder. The only way the free-falling ladder will beat the ladder being dropped onto a table is if that ladder is dropped from a much higher height and is allowed to reach Terminal Velocity.
Never seen a ladder like that, so I assume it's relevant to the experiment.
As many others have stated, the rotational force applied to each rung as it hits the desk pulls on the shorter end of the rope, in turn pulling the whole thing down faster.
Right just has the force of gravity and a bit of air resistance. Left has the force of the desk pushing back on it, so, we see a reaction
Newtons law, opposite but equal reaction;
When a rung hits the table, it is bounced back up slightly by the stopping force, as the rung then bounces off the table, a slight amount of extra force is pulled on the ropes to the next rung (as not only gravity it pulling on the next rung, but a slight tug from the proceeding rung that has bounced is now also applying a tiny amount of force due to the “whipping” action on the ropes).
Though the many number of rungs that are performing these actions, an exponential fall rate can be observed over time.
Элементарно, палки разделены не одинаковой длины веревками. Поэтому, эта палка ударяясь о стол, слегка тянет свой второй конец. А так как этих палок не мало, в сумме, получается быстрее
This happens because each rung on the ladder is tilted. As each rung hits the table it pulls the string it's attached to downward a bit, causing the ladder to fall faster.
probably the best explanation
Thanks for that but I am still surprised!
SIGH. THAT'S THE WRONG NUMBER.
OOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
@John Doe tht is not how it works bro
@John Doe The left one hits the table far earlier. The right ladder probably doesn't even hit the floor by the time the left ladder has fully collapsed. Surely you're not this stupid, are you trolling?
The strings on A have an additional tensile force applied to them when each rung falls out of axis. This is known as linear refractal preclusion, or LRP. It’s much to the same affect as when you randomly make something up on a CZcams video comment.
My guess is that the table, by stopping the fall of lower rungs, reduces overall air resistance and allows the rate of fall to accelerate slightly more than the fully falling ladder. He needs to repeat this experiment in a vacuum chamber.
It's because of the positioning of the steps when the first one hits the table it begins a chain reaction of added tensile strength together with gravity to make the ladder fall faster
You can even see the fact that the rope pulls on the rest of the ladder after the first step hits the table
Is it conservation of momentum? I think the angled rungs make it so that when one end stops, that rung keeps the momentum until the other side hits, speeding up that still-falling end ever so slightly.
In other words, if in free-fall a stick has x momentum, and one half of a stick abruptly stops while the other half is free to keep going, the still-moving half would have to double its speed to maintain its momentum.
Because the rungs are tilted. When the rungs hit the table, they want to lay flat, but they have to rotate first, and that angular momentum pulls down on the shorter strings, which pulls the ladder down faster.
This is a very good explanation - I specifically like "they want to lay flat, but they have to rotate first".
Logical ... I conclude ... live long and prosper 🖖🏻.
@KingsBlade 7 no. That.
Yes. This.
@Brendan H I see it. It leans towards the other ladder.
This needs to be done with a ladder falling and the parts to a disassembled ladder falling.
This way you see if the wind resistance of the rope is pulling upward to the wood, or if the wood is wide enough for wind resistance, and the straight rope when dropped can maintain its aerodynamic position.
Angle matters. As one end of the stick hits the table , it bounces a bit, which results the other end to "pull". This then happens alternatively on both sides.
it has to do with static resistance.
The chain piling on the table has less resistance, allowing remaining chain to fall faster.
For every ladder step that hits the table, it lessens the amount the step above the tabled step has to travel before it collides.
The angled rungs are the key to this. As a rung contacts a surface a rotational force happens to that rung causing the free end to tug harder on it's rope. The ladder that hits first begins this repeating cycle of tugging first thus completing the cycle first, dragging the last of the ladder down first.
Nope. Conservation of momentum
@Shocker99😎
@Slick Ricknope
The one on the left was shorter and the rungs not as deep.
Not physics, just an old camera trick
@Bryan Cline that is incorrect. The mechanism has nothing to do with the shape/ braiding of the rope. It has been measured and done with single strands, and usually chains. Google folding falling chain problem.
I love experiments like this I actually question random questions that almost nobody asks.
Or I am probably feeling their thoughts because I have no idea why these thoughts and ideas come to me at the exact same time it's in process.
Or maybe I am related or agree with people like this and perhaps they have the answer with trials and errors.
When the chains are released the tension in the chain drops nominally to zero. Because the chains always has some elasticity, this drop to zero starts an overall chain contraction that continues as the chain falls. The the left chain dropped first, this elastic contraction pulls the top of the chain down, making it go faster.
The table is doing a force on the opposite direction of the gravity, which causes the ladder itself to do an equal force responding to it, but there is a delay due to the strings not being steady, resulting on the ladder falling faster
3d Newton's law.
May be because of the inclination of the steps of the ladder. When one side of each step of ladder touches the table the other side creates a pulling momentum to the strings and it accelerates the speed of the fall compared to the second ladder. This will not happen if the steps were tied horizontally !
I love the part where he explains why it happens
@Toby Bearman In vacuum. So, the shorter ladder will have less resistance, and that's why it will fall faster.
The magic is the angle of the ladder steps. Look at the pivot impact and the tension and the length of string and it should add up why.
@Alex bros mad the youtuber asked a question💀💀
@srejuboyd hahah how orignal
@Kris Netemeyer that joke went so far over your head that nasa could have attached a space probe to it for a free trip to pluto
3d Newton's law: *To every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction*
The pieces of the ladder hitting the table go back up with the same and equal F (minus friction, gravity, etc etc) hence we have a -F which acts on the cords, and as a result are pulling (down) the rest of the ladder. But I am probably wrong also on this one.
Slanted rungs causing a tug on the higher line when the low end hits the table, so each time a rung lands it's providing an impulse downward.
for me the most surprising thing to me is how the ladders stayed so orderly in line and haven't collided
Because every step on the left ladder "pulls" a little bit against the table, each time it hits the table, the upper step (resultants of carriers). If the steps were parallels, this wouldn't happen.
Due to the angle of each section, when it hits the table, it pulls the other side which is attached through the cable to the next section. The angular energy is transfered each time one side hits the table.
@SnotrocketLT4
Edit 1: you are correct. Edit 2: the only limit would be wind resistance which would cause it to reach terminal velocity pretty quickly.
@Enrico Caminiti
That would require zero external forces and some net positive internal forces from something like a spring being released. So that won’t work in this type of situation.
@moon house kinetic movement or force when it’s stopped?
@kylethekidable yeah I realized this shortly after commenting. I was thinking they could have demonstrated the same effect without the need for a table by using one ladder with staggered rungs and one ladder with parallel rungs. However, I cheated and looked up the experiment, and while they don’t say so explicitly, they may have had a good reason not to do it this way. In order to demonstrate that there was nothing special about the ladder in the left in particular, they ran the experiment again but with the ladders switched and got the same results. This wouldn’t have been possible using a staggered ladder, a parallel ladder and no table.
This is definitely correct, also I think the rungs glancing off each other and pulling sideways (toward and away from the camera in this clip) is also adding a component to the tensions in the cables
I believe it could be less air friction for the ladder on the right, given that the portion of ladder that is hitting the table doesn't affect in any way the rest of the object
I think it's because of the air friction, that slows down both ladders. But since the left one (B) has less and less parts remaining (hanging in the air) the overall friction force getting smaller and hence the increased speed of fall. I suppose in vacuum both ladders would have fallen at the same speed.
After years of studying and countless hours of research i've come to a conclusion that i have no idea why that happens.
This acceleration occurs due to a decrease in the mass being operated on by a constant downward force.
It is because of the angled rungs. When the lower end of the rung hits the table, the rung pivots to level out. This applies a downward force on the string accelerating that side of the ladder down. This happens with each rung.
@FWU - Finally Waking Up than give your take on this, choosen one.
Have you payed your speeding tickets yet?
@FWU - Finally Waking Up yep why didn't I think of that. Nobel Prize for you.
@Brendan guys guys guys it has nothing to do with tension or shape or any of that think of it like this it doesn't matter about the beginning of the ladder it's about the end of the ladder the end of the ladder is landing earlier on one side because its destination for landing is cut in half and has a shorter distance so it's going to land sooner obviously it's the same thing like measuring the top of ladder a and it's going to land hypothetically it would land at the around the same time that be would if you watch the video
@mauze king seriously what's wrong with all of you the reason why one land sooner than the other is because it's Landing distance is shorter there's no other reason it's obviously a child could figure it out I predicted it before before I even play the video
@Jan K it's not air resistance smh. What's wrong with all of you that don't see the simple obvious reason why one lands first than the other?
This is a case of leverage. Imagine those ladder rings, slanted, falling in free space alone. When a slanted rigid body falls, it’s the CG that falls at the acceleration of g. So the entire slanted body is falling (and still accelerating) at uniform velocity at the moment of impact the leading tip hits th ground, however the CG is still falling with potential energy yet to expend. Draw a free body diagram! You now have a force acting downward at the CG centroid (the geometric center in this case) and have created a fulcrum where the foremost point is acting against the ground. This means the far tip gets “slung” downward; accelerating at rate approximately 2X the acceleration the CG will continue to experience until the tip is whipped against the ground and PE is zero.
Imagine the simplest example of this; hold a meter stick with the 0cm end on the ground and hold the 100cm mark. Give the meter stick a leaning angle and then let go. It will topple over. The meter stick’s mean fall velocity will be the velocity of the 50cm mark, but the 100cm mark will strike the ground much faster because it must make up twice the distance during the same fall duration.
In the rope latter case, you have dozens of alternating rungs with no slack. The entire ladder is in free fall so roughly equal velocity throughout. When the trailing rung tips of the rungs striking the ground are whipped down, thier tip speed exceeds the mean velocity of that rung (which was also the mean velocity of the whole ladder) and it “pulls” downward on the rest of the ladder.
I believe this should occur up until terminal velocity.
When the ladder starts hitting the "ground", the long string side hits that surface first and makes the opposite side accelerate, pulling on the short string, just from that tilt. This action is repeated, etc, etc.
Easy peasy. Action-reaction Newton III! The lowest first rung hits the table on the right end first, causing an action force on the table. The table exerts an equal but opposite force UPWARDS on that right hand side stick end which transmits the force quickly to the left side of the rung. This infinite positive upward acceleration (MUCH GREATER THAN 9,8m/s^2) on the right side of the rung causes the left side of the rung to be yanked downwards (accelerate down) at the infinite rate greater than acceleration due to gravity (9,8). That increases tension in the vertical ropes greater than gravitational force, which sets off a chain reaction throughout the rungs and the ropes. This creates an overall downwards acceleration GREATER than acceleration due to gravity (9,8 m/s^2), which pulls the left ladder down faster than the right ladder.
My guess is that the one that hits the table has less surface area to fight against air resistance due to parts of it coming to rest on the table. Since the other one still has a large part of it mid air, and thus resisting the air as it falls, it falls slower.
The rungs are tied together. As each rung hits, the rope that connects them is displaced. Creating a small tug of downward force. This causes the next rung to fall a little faster. Which in turn causes a compounding domino effect with each rung that follows. Increasing the rate at which the remaining parts of the ladder fall. Making the object fall faster.
@w's sometimes a vowel re > But could there also be some shock wave traveling up the rope and the sine wave cause some slight acceleration as well?<
In all experiments all physical laws take place. So you can even argue that the heat generated by rungs hitting the table affect speed of that falling ladder. The problem is how much does it affect it? In this case -- not much.
BTW. A shock wave _is a type of propagating disturbance that moves _*_faster than the local speed of sound_*_ in the medium._ In the falling ladder experiment nothing like that happens.
@FIFO Crew Wow, that explains it of course.
You explained it better than I explained it lol. I think I said momentum while you said downward force. Yours sounds better and more thoroughly explained his question.
@TJ Blues awesome!! This makes more sense. The angular momentum seems like it would speed up the descent more than vibrations. But could there also be some shock wave traveling up the rope and the sine wave cause some slight acceleration as well? The angled rungs I think would also create more of a shock "ripple" in the rope. The harmonic resonant frequency would increase as the rope shortens; Like a finger sliding up a plucked guitar string.
Is this a group project? I'm joining this group
As the one was falling and collected on table has getting less and less air drag where as the other one ladder which was free falling facing same amount of air drag throughout .
With the angle of the bottom step making contact first, it acts with slight leverage pulling on the opposite side with short string. Over time those small adjustments made it slightly speed up. Since that ladder made contact first it made it seem faster than the other ladder… but that’s just a guess.
Clever. ‘B’ ladder experienced additional turbulence in its strings, creating kinetic energy that accelerated its ‘fall’ beyond terminal velocity.
I think simplest explanation to calm my mind will be
. " The distance was different for both of them"
Peace of mind 🤭
That's my answer without going into conversation dynamics of force
There's nothing more eerie than a science CZcamsr asking a question and then not answering it.
Edit: some of you seem to not understand that this was a joke. science youtubers usually follow up a question with a direct explanation. this video simply reminded me of the video where Michael says "Hey! Vsauce! Michael here! where are your fingers..."
it's called an anomaly .
how many will guess at it ?.
and how many people will actually think about it.
and how many people take the challenge , find the answer and learn something.
life is full of creativity, find it where you may .
- DaVinci's 40 answers
@themoistbanana someone else commented the answer and it totally made sense once I read it.
@themoistbanana The Waffle House has found it's new host.
It’s in the full video…these are CZcams shorts
@John BlackwellI'm thinking it's as simple as the fall distance is further for the second ladder
The impact of the one that hit the table creates a force that transforms into a transient increase in the weight of the ladder hence there is a higher gravitational force on it so it falls faster.
B fell faster because A has to fall more than B. By the time A reached the ground, b has already dropped completely
If you watch closely the one that hits the table falls off the table after that. I would assume that it falls off the table at a faster speed than when it was first dropped. This probably happens because it rolls off the table at the speed at which the Earth is spinning which is faster than the free falling one on the right. My advice is use more cameras next time.
Micro stress from each hit that stresses the thread it is holding out in, if it pushes it speeds it, if it push back it's null, the thread doesn't transfer energy up but down. In repetition, it pulls the whole "ladder" faster, a little bit faster.
The angled ladder rungs are forced to rotate around their center of mass when one end hits the table, this minor rotation slightly pulls on the cord on the adjacent end. So in sum a slight downward force along the cords is applied.
In conclusion this only works if the rungs are angled like this.
@jpteknoman mechanical physics baffled me in school but nuclear physics I mastered so I’m unlikely to be correct in this situation. But if one was to increase the distances from inches to feet it stands reason that air resistance would likely have an effect that can be readily seen in such a demonstration. Please, someone explain why air resistance wouldn’t explain this phenomenon.
@MrJeffrey938 likewise my friend
@Motorsport Creative ok? And y was this necessary. What does this add to society does it make u feel better about ur menial life
@YT775 my pleasure. Translators are still very flawed for many languages. 👍
@Alec Warda Same here. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.
The ladder on the left finishes landing first because the table is high than the floor and once the falling rungs stop and land on each other the point where the ladder has to stop falling gets higher and higher while the floor stays at the same height so the ladder on the right has farther to fall.
When the ladder hits the table, a force in the opposite direction will start and then go back and fasten the rate of the fall. Kinda like a spring mechanism
As the rods on the left hit the table they are no longer falling, thus the total resistance of the air is reduced. The area of falling parts decreases.
Some rungs don't hit perfectly on center, causing movement in the y axis if the x axis is parallel to the rungs on the ladder. The force of gravity going straight down remains constant, but the pull on the y axis causes an addition downward force.
As each rung hits the bottom, it creates a small moment of inertia (rotation) because one end of the rung lands first and then bounces up. When that end bounces up, it causes a slight downward tug on the other end (the side with the short string), which is still taut. This additional force causes a slightly greater acceleration to the free-falling object above.
The air drag on the ladder falling on the table is getting less since its surface area moving through the air is getting less and less, which makes it fall faster (air drag is getting reduced).
@noon neel No, it had never occurred to me to even consider such a situation. I suspect a similar string ladder but with parallel rungs would in fact do the same thing IF it was long enough, but only because some minor imperfection in the system would cause a rung to hit on one end before the other and that would start a chain reaction.
@Kirk Johnson see i agree with what you said ,but tell me did you ever imagine that phenomena before looking at this experiment video???
your reasoning is accurate ,but if the phenomena goes true for parallel rungs. i mean logically you and i both know it wont happen ,but i personally did not do the experiment so.... iam holding back
If you pause the video right after each impact, you will notice that after each impact, there is an instant where the short string to the rung above is in tension while the long string is slack. This would appear to confirm your analysis of the problem.
@noon neel No, the end that hits first experiences an upward force from the table which causes the rung to rotate ever so slightly about its center causing a tension on the opposite string and that tension pulls down on the opposite end of the rung above causing it to accelerate downward and to rotationally accelerate creating tension on the opposite string and so on and so on.
Ohhh I know this one! So when each bar hits at the edge that side wants to move up which yanks down the side connected to the shorter chain, and this happens for each rung in the lader which increases the fall speed just slightly for each rung.
I think it may be the shock of each impact imparted onto the strings connecting the ladder pieces... If you watch the video closely the strings appear the jerk the next piece down slightly. This compounded over the entire length equates to the difference you see in the end.
The one on the right has reached terminal velocity and can no longer speed up but the left one is getting hit by an upward force which give the object a small speed boost which therefore makes it fall faster than the other
Time(t)=distance (d)/speed(s)
If s is the same then t changes if d changes
Of course if d gets smaller t will become Smaller which means the period of the fall will be shorter 🙂
Due to each step being inclined, one side touch the table first pulling the string of opposite side due to inertia which accelerates the fall.
Inertia is it. The ladder steps fall "again" to the side and drag down the rest of the ladder faster.
@ChefBoyareB If you look closely you will notice the one on the left is vibrating a lot more. It's gravitational pull due to the impact. Things bounce and that additional recoil as it lands the 2nd time creates a secondary pull. When you drive a car and you brake really hard your body goes forward then it goes back then it goes to its resting position that is 3 different locations. The ladder will generate gravitational pull until it stops moving.
Strange though.. the left looses weight at an increasing rate to
@ChefBoyareB no you can't. What you see are the strings caving in because they are collapsing.
Exactly what I was thinking. NOT😂
Both ladders as they fall should have equal momentum at all times prior to the left ladder hitting the table. The moment the left ladder starts piling up on the table partial mass is stopped to zero velocity at which time velocity of the rest of ladder will increase to compensate for momentum conservation.
closer to the end the sticks on the left started to lose structure, meaning there was an interference with the strings below, and the only way to visibly interfere is to pull on the string.
One of the logs snagged the line somewhere at the pileup and gave it a tiny jerk.
The rungs are deflecting in the Z direction (with respect to the viewed perspective) so the string is being pulled down at a faster speed as the rung deflects in the Z. Think of it like a connecting rod in a car engine.
Because the one on the left is being pulled down by the ropes at the side. When one side hits the ground, it forces the other side down faster.
The following arrangement is causing the bars to be pulled down faster on the table.
1. Those strings attached to the bars in such a way that the bars hang down tilting to approximately 10 degrees.
So when one end of the bar hits the table, on the other end the shorter string is pulled down because of the impacting force going towards the other end of the bar with the shorter string.
@Miscellaneous it wasnt the mass of the planks that is causing that effect on other planks. it's the mass of the earth hence gravity... what the other guy was saying is that accumulated mass of the piling planks gets great enough to make the rest of the planks fall faster. i dont think that accumulated mass is great enough to cause that "extra pull" , hence it's negligible.
@Philip Ricafort the mass is great enough based on the speed they are falling. And based on the imbalance and bounce that the individual bars are making upon impacting on the table
You’re wrong. It would also add equal force to negative axis hence adding a slight side to side deviation to the ladder. But no wiggle
That’s what I thought in my head but I wasn’t sure if that’s actually what happened but total sense
@miscellaneous What's is it the actual term of what you just explained?
The movement of the ladders bouncing back up must cause the strings to attract the layers above 👌
I guess because of the chaos that occurred in the zone of contact, causing ladder to have much net pull generated.
This happens because every time they stack on each other it’s a shorter distance to drop which makes it go faster
I think the wind resistance is lower when the lowest part of the ladder already hit the ground and as the ladder on the left hit the ground earlier then the one on the right, the upper part of the left ladder has the lower air resistance earlier and therefore is faster for a short amount of time
In my head this made sense, I'm not entirely sure though so please correct me if I'm wrong
The steps are tilted, so once the lower side hits the table, it will act as a lever, pulling on the above step at the opposite side. Since the tilt is alternating, this extra pull will be alternating between left and right, so on average both sides get a little extra pull down.
@Reellron well thats one way to say the same thing with different words
@Farhad Kabir Great comment John Fetterman.
@Kyle Mullaney and you're right too, it could also be a combination of many different forces for the overall effect.
I guess you would have to do a different test and change variables
@emmac You are saying you would accelerate beyond terminal velocity in what circumstance? Have you invented a new definition or terminal velocity?
@Kyle Mullaney and another question I have, you notice the rungs are only pulled by each others strings, there is slack in the lines for every rung after it lands
yes, the answer is simply Action/Reaction principle. When the left ladder hit the ground, the upward reaction will create a downward pulling force on the string.
Sir Isaac Newton would have thrived here. Equations of motion differ for each system, as does the relative amount of distance traveled. While the rate of change of speed may be initially equal (gravity is a constant acceleration), the relatively shorter amount of distance traveled in scenario B allows the tension in the ropes to do work on system B. Ground-induced work creates an impulse of kinetic energy for system B, specifically as it relates to increasing the acceleration of the falling system. First law, object in motion remains in motion--freefall. Second law postulates that an acceleration is present when the tension in the rope (a force) interacts with the mass of the table, and the mass of the system (ropes + wood). Third law postulates that the reaction of system B interacting with the table yields an equal and opposite reaction, which propagates force up the taut rope (speed depends on rope tension and wood stiffness) providing the apparent acceleration of system B (i.e., the rate of change of speed of system B). There is no external acceleration acting on system A (besides the acceleration due to gravity). Could also say the ropes in system A never experience a significant change in tension throughout the amount of distance traveled.
Wouldn’t the difference in arch lengths relative to the center of earths gravity explain this? That or the reverberations of the pvc creating a pulling force quicker….
The one on the right should have fallen sooner looking at it logically more mass = more gravitational pull but I guess the speed developed for both sides were equal initially and then when the left started to got lighter the speed increased
There is a slight "pull down" effect due to the angle at which the beams hit the surface, almost like a "leverage" effect. You can observe the additional tension transferred on the opposite side to the first side that impacts the surface. That extra energy transfer is enough to compile into a visible acceleration on the left ladder. Also, as more links impact the surface, if you focus on the further (up) beams, you can see the effect of the pull-down that I'm referring to. There are other observable events, such as the energy of the impact and the " force of the bounce" being transferred to the other ladder links.
Yessir
this is the reason
More than just a slight effect. It’s significant.
Tomas, you took the words out of my mouth!
U dropped this king👑
I think it's because the free falling ladder encounters more air resistance than the one falling on the table, as the free falling one travels more in the fluid which is 'air' than the one falling on table whose overall path travelled also reduces further due to the bundling at the top of the table.
The distance traveled doesn't matter because they're falling at the same rate.
This is not a measure of which ladder touches a surface first, but of why one is faster.
Air resistance is equal for each space between each rung on the ladder, but your instincts that it is because the ladder is bundling onto the table is correct.
My guess is that it all goes down the the fact that the bars are inclined, explanations below for those interested ⬇️
When a bar hits the table, the hitting side comes to a sudden stop, creating an acceleration of the other side to compensate. This acceleration pulls on the string, thus accelerating the falling of the ladder... that's it! :)
Watch the table closely. When the rungs hit the table they naturally bounce up then back down. The down bounce pulls on the string putting it in tension and pulling whatever is above it down faster.
If there was no string and the same experiment both sides would fall at the same rate.
Air resistance.. the complete ladder has to push more air out of the way… the ladder hitting the table, you can subtract the drag of each rung when it stops moving. Therefore it can ultimately accelerate to a higher terminal velocity.
My guess is that because the rungs aren’t parallel, when the first one hit the surface, it caused it to torque thus pulling on the opposite end. This tugged a little on the rest of the ladders and repeats every time a rung hits the surface. The tiny tugs compound until the difference is very visible.
That’s my answer when looking at it on a per element basis. The math becomes a bit confusing when trying to analyze the system as a whole
This is my answer too
My exact thought!!!
Yea that seems like that's what is going on. Nice observation.
I observed this as a kid just never cared why lol
I think you
are...
...right.
if you look at one side for awhile, you can see slight tugs on ore or the other side.
You're correct. The energy is transferred to the chain on rung impact, pulling the rest faster
Simply a matter of resistance. The ladder on the right remained falling as one long object of mass and was effected by the resistance of air throughout the entire chain. As the ladder on the left hit the table, it reduced the length of the object thereby decreasing the amount of air resistance that was effecting its free fall. Notice how the shorter the ladder became the faster it fell.
The ladder hitting the table and forming a "mass" was pulling the ladder towards it at a faster rate due to its massive, gravitational pull, whereas the freefalling ladder was not able to "build up mass" and hence a stronger, faster pull, and so continues to fall with its speed uninterrupted.
The ladder rungs are the reason for this. When the lower side of the rung hits the table, it causes the higher side of the rung to pull the short rope down faster. Forcing the whole chain to speed up.
I don't know how this happened , but i guess it works like quantum wave length which acts like gravity (the waves with the perfect or higher amplitude push the atoms behind or near them , making them come towards it )