If you've ever stood near the front of a rock concert, chances are at some point you've been involved - whether you liked it or not - in a mosh pit. It's a curious phenomenon where people elect to demonstrate their enthusiasm for music by jumping into one another with reckless abandon.
For some people, it can be a transcendent experience, throwing away all inhibitions and surrendering completely to the energy of the music. For others, it's a damn nuisance. But it takes a very special kind of person to look at that teeming mass of humanity and see order.
That's just what happened to a couple of graduate students at Cornell University. Big heavy metal fans, they couldn't help but notice the movement of people in mosh pits was pretty similar to what molecules look like moving in a gas. Using preexisting models, and augmenting them with some serious concert going "research", they've built a mathematical model to simulate the behaviour of people in a mosh pit.
The model itself is pretty cool, and I've included it below, but it isn't just fun and games - the researchers say they hope that their model can be helpful in looking at riots and protests. So next time you're stuck in a most pit, just remember that they might just be indirectly saving lives!
Have you ever moshed? Does this model seem accurate to you?