How The Spring Paradox Actually Works

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[tyres]

*Steve Mould*,
Answering questions which i never had

[EyespenNoFear]

Fantastic explanation!

I never would have thought that springs and batteries have that much in common

[howtoappearincompletely]

The analogy to electrical circuits in series and in parallel really jumps out at me.

[griffonu]

The really cool parallel you can do with this situation is considering the ropes as being roads and showing how eliminating the direct (and very crowded, naturally) road can improve the overall travel time. Not sure Steve showed that or another channel.

[TheHappyKamper]

I've heard this explained before, but didn't get it. With your explanation it made sense straight away!

[Insert_Bland_Name_Here]

This is exactly the same way resistors work, really. In series, two resistors share the same current, while in parallel, the current is split between the two resistors.

[liambohl]

Once again, I've watched the full video, loved it, watched the short, and wished shorts never existed

[caspermadlener]

I like how this a true paradox, really a case where intuition fails, and not just one guy misunderstanding something obvious.

[loganwright]

Ok here’s my analysis given my physics degree…

Hooke’s Law described a linear force interaction for springs (which is surprisingly accurate for short stretched distances for the spring). When a weight is hung from the spring, Newton’s second law is simple

k*Δy-m*g=0

The first force written is Hookes law, a spring constant (force provided by a spring given a certain compression/tension distance) and the second is just the mass of the weight times the acceleration of gravity.

Basically, the value of k is large for very stiff things like the paracord and is smaller for the springs. Since the tension force is what keeps the weight hanging above the ground, all we care about is the value of k being used. So, when the springs are no longer the only source of tension, the average value of k for the whole system increases, meaning Δy decreases.

[mango_tree]

That just helped me understand resistors a little bit more.

[meowingman]

I like these videos in short form because the people I want to show your full videos often lack the patience for those initially, but after just a few shorts they're typically ready for a full video.

[johnt.inscrutable]

This is a brilliant explanation. Because I work with electronics the series vs parallel analogy is so spot on. Thanks!

[pdloder]

I love this vid - it's explains the scale phenomenon - where you can stack scales atop each other and they all register the full amount of mass placed atop. Whereas if you put 2 scales side by side and a foot on each - each scale only registers half the mass.

[kaiperdaens]

Cool and as always a super explanation 😊.

[fasted]

Mom: "how was your day?"
- watched a 20 second video on repeat until I went mad

[jordanbailey]

I've seen this experiment explained more times than i can count. This is the first time I've understood it. Thank you

[beniyuki]

Your explanation is surely accurate in terms of the final state of the change. However, right after cutting the rope, there should be an extremely short period of time that the newly formed circle-like loop doesn’t have enough tension which will let the weight fall a little bit(like
REALLY LITTLE).

[andrewdreasler]

The series-parallel is the BEST explanation for the apparent paradox I've ever heard. Now it's obvious, as it mirrors other things, such as current flow through resistors in series or parallel. (Electronics gut here, comparing things to electric circuits is kind of a reflex at this point.)

[Methodician]

This gets me every time 😂 I believe I understand what's happening but I would watch a longer video expanding on this and maybe showing similar tricks or real world applications.

[diamonddotzip]

Somehow this helped me understand both sping physics and electric circuits better than any of the classes I've taken that taught those ever did