Re: The Sound of Many Hands Clapping

From: spike66 (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Tue Mar 12 2002 - 21:45:38 MST


Amara Graps wrote:

> This Web page by Zoltan Neda, a theoretical physicist at
> Romania's Babes-Bolyai University, has studied/is studying
> how synchronized clapping emerges from audience's applause.

http://www.nd.edu/~networks/clap/ <http://www.nd.edu/%7Enetworks/clap/>

This is so way cool! I have been going crazier wondering about
this after a symphony concert I went to a couple weeks ago. The
St. Petersburg Orchestra was doing Rachmaninov. Afterwards
the audience was trying to get an encore, and the synchronized
clapping started spontaneously out of a general nonsynchronized
applause. As it always does, the frequency gradually increased
from about 1.5 hz to about 2.5 hz, at which time it broke up into
chaos.

Questions:

Why does it always start out at about the same
frequency and break up at about the same frequency?

Is someone leading? Or is it spontaneous order?

Why is it that it always speeds up?

Suppose you got an audience together and told them you
want to start a round synchronized clapping, but instead of
speeding up, you want to slow down. Could they do it? Could
they do it without a leader? Could they do it with a leader?

What frequency would it break up into chaos?

Has anyone ever tried it?

Does it matter how many people are in the audience?

Does it matter if you started out with a group of musicians?

How about a group of mathematicians?

Lets try this at Extro6.

spike



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