Ponytail Physics · 7:43pm Sep 19th, 2017
In an episode which saw the return of Zecora, as well as Davenport, Mr Breezy and others, the character I was waiting to show up in It Isn't the Mane Thing About You was Zephyr Breeze. Where is a Mane Therapy graduate when you need him?
Instead let’s talk about the physics of ponytails.
In 2012 Patrick Warren, Raymond Goldstein, Robin Ball and Joe Keller were awarded the prestigious Ig Nobel prize for their work developing the Ponytail Shape Equation, combining parameters to characterise the elasticity and waviness of individual hairs, and a quantity they labelled the Rapunzel Number, they used statistical physics techniques to predict the resulting shape when 100,000+ hairs are drawn together and tied back.
The challenge here is that while the mechanics of a single hair are well understood, it isn’t feasible to analyse them all in the same way. You have to find a way to make approximations to model their collective behaviour. In the same way as how the science of thermodynamics explains heat and temperature from statistical predictions of the behaviour of large numbers of individual atoms and molecules.
However this group only looked at human ponytails, so there is a research opportunity out there for anyone interested in applying this mathematical framework to real ponies.
The shape of a ponytail and the statistical physics of hair fiber bundles.Raymond E. Goldstein, Patrick B. Warren, and Robin C. Ball, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 078101 (2012).
Next will be collars, scrunchies, and elasticated verses buttoned pant tail holes?
Maybe combine with airspeed of unladen swallow ignoble paper, to get that writing flowoing mane and tail, depending on a single dimentionless ratio for each part, an average and rage for each species etc?
Sounds like a great project to me!
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I fondly recall sitting in a laundromat with my college roomie, estimating how we would build a mathematical model of the clothes in a dryer with enough precision to figure out where each article of clothing ended up in the pile when the machine stopped. We quickly concluded the project was well above our intellectual pay grade
I imagine that the physics are the same for both equines and hominins. Speaking about Ignobles, the latest Ignobles just came out but I have not found the time to watch yet.
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Did your model factor in missing socks?
( but seriously, it isn't just a random distribution? )
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I think missing socks was what first started the conversation. We figured if we could account for drum movement, temperature distribution, water distribution, static electricity, the behavior of different fabric types under each of those varying conditions… you can see how it spiraled out of control