When you put chains and physics together, you get results that are borderline magic, and this experiment from MIT proves it. No, this chain doesn’t seem to float in mid-air, but it does walk across the room.
The weird phenomenon has to do with the physics of waves will spread through a chain if it’s getting spun around at high speeds. There’s preciously little explanation in MIT’s video of the experiment, but when you think about it, it sort of makes sense. If you get a tire spinning and then let it go, it’ll roll across the room. When you do the same thing to a chain it eventually starts to collapse on itself, making the whole thing look like a bizarre sort of dance. If only physics blessed you with moves that sweet. [MIT via Reddit]