The Physics of Mosh Pits at Heavy Metal Concerts

The Physics of Mosh Pits at Heavy Metal Concerts (Explained by Cornell Grad Students):

Speaking at the American Physical Society last month, Matthew Bierbaum, a Cornell grad student, presented a talk called “Collective Motion at Heavy Metal Concerts,” where he made the case that physics is everywhere, even in a mosh pit at a heavy metal show. Along with three other Cornell researchers, Bierbaum has analyzed and modeled the collective motions of moshers in various YouTube concert videos (like the one below) and discovered that “dancers collide with each other randomly and at a distribution of speeds that resembles particles in a two-dimensional gas,” writes Lauren Wolfe in Chemical & Engineering News.