Physicists model mosh pits and circle pits via flocking sims
TL;DR
- A 2013 paper identifies two distinct crowd states at heavy metal concerts: a disordered gas-like mosh pit and an ordered vortex-like circle pit.
- The authors used publicly available online videos paired with flocking simulations to reproduce both patterns.
- Submitted February 7, 2013 by Silverberg, Bierbaum, Sethna, and Cohen; the paper also ran in Physical Review Letters.
A 2013 physics paper identifies two distinct patterns in the motion of concert-goers at heavy metal shows: "a disordered gas-like state called a mosh pit and an ordered vortex-like state called a circle pit."
The arXiv preprint, by Jesse L. Silverberg, Matthew Bierbaum, James P. Sethna and Itai Cohen, was submitted on February 7, 2013. The authors say they used videos publicly available online to study "the highly energized collective motion of attendees at heavy metal concerts," then reproduced both states in flocking simulations. The paper also ran in Physical Review Letters, and arXiv lists it under Physics and Society alongside Social and Information Networks.
"Both phenomena are reproduced in flocking simulations demonstrating that human collective behavior is consistent with the predictions of simplified models," the abstract concludes.
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Originally reported by arxiv.org
Read the original article →Original headline: Collective Motion of Moshers at Heavy Metal Concerts