The physics of mosh pits

In 2013, a group of researchers published a paper called Collective Motion of Moshers at Heavy Metal Concerts. The paper’s abstract reads:

Human collective behavior can vary from calm to panicked depending on social context. Using videos publicly available online, we study the highly energized collective motion of attendees at heavy metal concerts. We find these extreme social gatherings generate similarly extreme behaviors: a disordered gas-like state called a mosh pit and an ordered vortex-like state called a circle pit. Both phenomena are reproduced in flocking simulations demonstrating that human collective behavior is consistent with the predictions of simplified models.

The authors built an interactive mosh pit simulation based on their simplified models. You can try it out right here:

(via @nickrichter)

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