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Synchronization of Metronomes

Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations
Demos
YouTube
Cited on HN 4 times, 2017–2025, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as the canonical visual demonstration of coupled oscillators synchronizing, applied to analogies from brain waves to LLM populations.

A Harvard lecture demonstration in which five metronomes on a movable board gradually fall into synchronization through coupling. Removing the coupling lets them drift out of step.

“Everything that oscillates at roughly the same frequency and has some coupling synchronizes.” (HN, 2023)

4 citations · Demos

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@Animats May 2025 Cites it
on HN thread Emergent social conventions and collective bias in LLM populations
That may be reading too much into this behavior. Watch this video of metronomes self-synchronizing.[1] That's a pervasive phenomenon. Anything with similar oscillation frequency and coupling will do this. (Including polling systems with fixed retry intervals.) Are you sure that's not just this effect? [1] [this video]
Metronomes self-synchronizing as a pervasive phenomenon.
@roenxi Oct 2025 Cites it
on HN thread The Majority AI View
You might find some inspiration in this video of metronomes synchronising and desynchronysing [0]. It doesn't take much to cause things to happen at the same time, in the case the CEOs are likely all responding to the same market signals at the same time for the same reason. Probably interest rates. [0] [this video]
Metronomes synchronising and desynchronising.

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