Bead chain dynamics

Fun stuff from Earth Unplugged via NPR's Science Friday's Facebook page.

Amazing bead chain experiment in slow motion - Slo Mo #19 - Earth Unplugged


I'm not sure what meaningful high school physics pedagogy is here. For now it's mainly "gee whiz" cool.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

UPDATE: Bead chain seems to be more commonly referred to as ball chain. If you look for it, it will be listed with a size. The sizing regimen is one of direct proportionalities (unlike wire gauge). Here's a handy guide page: Ball Chain Sizes. The chain in the video looks to be about size 10, but that's a mere guess on my part. And I'm not always the best guesser.

UPDATE 2: Further research shows my size guess was correct. More ball chain goodness can be found at The Kids Should See This. Empirical Zeal's robust analysis merits a link!