Shockwave traffic jams recreated for first time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suugn-p5C1M/

The video is of an experiment performed in Japan, trying to determine why traffic jams happen.  They had a number of cars driving around in a large circle, all trying to maintain a speed of 30 km/h.   Even though the cars were trying to go the same speed they repeatedly bunched up causing traffic jams.  It is interesting to watch the ripple effects that happen after the backups start. 

Posted at 12:07AM Nov 28, 2008 by thomas stuart mccawley in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

The Fibonacci Sequence and Financial Markets

This video describes the fractal nature of the Fibonacci sequence, and how it can be applied to natural systems as well as financial markets. It shows how certain plants only branch in numbers equivalent to those in the sequence, and how the sequence models many aspects of our population. So if it can model our population, it can model the markets of our population as well. The idea is a bit of a stretch, but it is presented in a very interesting way.

Posted at 09:17PM Nov 24, 2008 by Daniel Evan Piephoff in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

Fractals in the Stock Market

 The idea that there could be fractals in the stock market is certainly an interesting idea. Think about it. Imagine  a world where you could predict which stocks would fall, which would rise, and when they would do that. People could make a fortune if they truly knew what they were doing. And, as seen above, many of the stock market graphs over years, months, or days, take on a general, fractal shape.

Posted at 02:41PM Nov 24, 2008 by Asia Murphy in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

Traffic Engineering

Video Link

This also goes into next weeks topic about traffic, but understanding how traffic behaves is a major part of the job of a Transportation engineer.  Several Transportation Engineers and researchers from Japan created an experiment to show how some traffic jams form.  These "shockwave" traffic jams appear for no apparent reason to participating motorists, but they have a huge impact on the interstate.  Traffic engineers can increase speed limits or appeal to lawmakers to increase laws about the required car-lengths between cars.  This may not prove effective if people simply don't know about / don't follow the law, and it still doesn't prevent rubbernecking at an accident or the congestion at on and off ramps.

Posted at 07:51PM Nov 20, 2008 by William Stoy in General  |  Comments[0]

River Basin Fractals

It has long been debated about how useful fractals actually are to the math/science world; it's agreed that they are fascinating, but do they tell us anything?  We have learned throughout the class that fractals can be found everywhere in nature, and I feel that this gives them meaning.  I feel that Mandelbrot is correct in saying that fractals are more than just "pretty pictures," and that they can in fact help us understand things that we were once unable to model in any form.  In this video, the speaker describes one way that fractals are used to help us understand river basin formation, which is an important factor in the lives of many people and animals.

Posted at 10:44PM Nov 18, 2008 by Molly Wright in MediaHunt6  |  Comments[0]

Fibonacci and Fractal Markets

This video has some interesting ideas about how the fibonacci set and spirals in general relate to the fluctuations of the stock market. If the golden ratio appears in so many natural applications, why not in the stock market? One analyst observes that the bull markets and bear markets are related by the fibonacci ratio in both time and price. The essential idea is that, the stock market is a measure of a population's productive capacity, and since the golden ratio appears in many other aspects of populations, this sequence can arise in a pattern of species prosperity. A bit long, but worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE2Lu65XxTU

Posted at 08:32PM Nov 18, 2008 by Garik Cruise Sadovy in MediaHunt6  |  Comments[0]

Fractals and Finance?

In economics, charts based on the market prices are made using the diagram below.

Here is an example of one of the charts:

Candlestick simple patterns

There are multiple forms of candlestick chart patterns, with the simplest depicted at right. Here is a quick overview of their names:

1. White candlestick - signals uptrend movement (those occur in different lengths; the longer the body, the more significant the price increase)
2. Black candlestick - signals downtrend movement (those occur in different lengths; the longer the body, the more significant the price decrease)
3. Long lower shadow - bullish signal (the lower wick must be at least the body's size; the longer the lower wick, the more reliable the signal)
4. Long upper shadow - bearish signal (the upper wick must be at least the body's size; the longer the upper wick, the more reliable the signal)
5. Hammer - a bullish pattern during a downtrend (long lower wick and small or no body); Shaven head - a bullish pattern during a downtrend & a bearish pattern during an uptrend (no upper wick); Hanging man - bearish pattern during an uptrend (long lower wick, small or no body; wick has the multiple length of the body.
6. Inverted hammer - signals bottom reversal, however confirmation must be obtained from next trade (may be either a white or black body); Shaven bottom - signaling bottom reversal, however confirmation must be obtained from next trade (no lower wick); Shooting star - a bearish pattern during an uptrend (small body, long upper wick, small or no lower wick)
7. Spinning top white - neutral pattern, meaningful in combination with other candlestick patterns
8. Spinning top black - neutral pattern, meaningful in combination with other candlestick patterns
9. Doji - neutral pattern, meaningful in combination with other candlestick patterns
10. Long legged doji - signals a top reversal
11. Dragonfly doji - signals trend reversal (no upper wick, long lower wick)
12. Gravestone doji - signals trend reversal (no lower wick, long upper wick)
13. Marubozu white - dominant bullish trades, continued bullish trend (no upper, no lower wick)
14. Marubozu black - dominant bearish trades, continued bearish trend (no upper, no lower wick)

Chart and description from Wikipedia - Candlestick simple patterns
Also, here is a video to explain how these charts are related to the Fibonacci sequence:
Fibonacci, CandleStick Patterns, Support and Resistance

Posted at 09:09PM Nov 17, 2008 by Cathalyn Van Deusen in MediaHunt6  |  Comments[0]

Destruction from Resonance

Both the Tacoma Bridge and the Millennium Bridge exhibited vibration induced by resonance.  A periodic force matched the natural vibration of the two structures, increasing the magnitude of the oscillations tremendously.  In the case of the Tacoma Bridge, wind passing over and around the bridge provided the external force.  For the Millenium Bridge, the people walking over the bridge caused the motion.  In each case, the motion of the bridge slightly altered the force, keeping it in resonance with the motion. 

A similar effect can be archived with a wine glass by using a sound waves as the driving force.  However, the sound is produced by a speaker and not coupled with the vibrations of the glass, so the experiment requires the speaker be tuned to almost exactly the same pitch as the glass.  Once that is done, the results are about the same.  a video is shown here

Posted at 04:54PM Nov 17, 2008 by Jeffrey Fowler in General  |  Comments[0]

Simulated Swaying Bridge

Video Link

Although it is possible to simulate different situations in which a bridge might sway or swing it is difficult to know exactly what factors could cause a catastrophic failure to occur. In the Tacoma Bridge case, several different measures were taken to reduce wave propagation through the bridge. Unfortunately this simulation does not show how these precautions might affect the bridge; either positively or negatively. In any case, such models improve understanding of bridge designs and possibly, bridge failures.

Posted at 12:56PM Nov 16, 2008 by Adam Keith in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

Orbit of Planets

This video is interesting because it shows how precise all the planet's orbit are. None of them ever overlap or negatively affect any of the others. They are also all traveling at different speeds. The model also shows comets orbiting the sun. The orbitals of the comets aren't centered like the planets are. Their orbitals are also tilted differently around the sun. They can also cross the orbits of planets. "link":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrODEmei-wA&feature=related

Posted at 12:23AM Nov 14, 2008 by Samantha Baughman in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

First Image of a Planet!

Today in class I said that astronomers "saw" planets in other solar systems by detecting the oscillations in the brightess of their. As of today, however, it turns out that I was wrong: see this NY Times article for details on the breaking news!

Posted at 11:00PM Nov 13, 2008 by DANIELS, KAREN in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

Birth of the Solar System

This video describes how the solar system may have been created. It suggests that our solar system may have been created by the explosion of a star. It also discusses the big bang theory which states that the universe may have been created by a large explosion.

Posted at 07:01PM Nov 13, 2008 by Brooke bernard in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

Figuring out how the universe works

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaqlYzjGWTQ

This video is about the Hadron Collider, and how it was built to understand how the universe was created, going back to the Big Bang Theory.  The collider was built to see what happens when two atoms collide.  Scientists believe the results may lead to a better understanding of how the universe started.  However, there is some speculation that the collider could create a black hole that would engulf the earth.

Posted at 02:55AM Nov 13, 2008 by Jacob Brennan in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

Hypothesis behind orbital variance

VIDEO

This video is a representation of the "Nice model", created by several international scientists to model the variation in the orbitals of the outer planets due to trillions of gravitational encounters with small objects in space.  The video shows an interesting phenomena after 878 million years when orbital resonance between Saturn and Jupiter result in catastrophic separation of the orbitals.  This hypothesis conflicts with the "Celestial Disharmonies" article in that it says that the separation between orbitals tends to reach a maximum separation and then becomes closer again (not a catastrophic result).  Also, while the article does not present a clear theory behind the chaotically changing orbitals, it does present the fact that most particulates in space would not influence the system as a whole.  

Posted at 12:47AM Nov 13, 2008 by Mary Burroughs in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]

Millenium Bridge

One of the readings on the Millenium bridge in London. A video of it swaying from side to side as people walk across can be seen  Here .  The supposed reason for this is that the motion of the bridge caused the people to walk in step and the shifting of weight pushed it side to side. You can see that the people on the bridge seem to have lateral movement.

Posted at 08:44PM Nov 12, 2008 by Timothy Michael Dannenhoffer in MediaHunt5  |  Comments[0]