The Secret of Synchronization

How does order spontaneously arise out of chaos? This video is sponsored by Kiwico - go to for 50% off your first month of any crate.
An enormous thanks to Prof. Steven Strogatz - this video would not have been possible without him. Much of the script-writing was inspired and informed by his wonderful book Sync, and his 2004 TED talk. He is a giant in this field, and has literally written the book on chaos, complexity, and synchronization. It was hard to find a paper in this field that Steven (or one of his students) didn't contribute to. His Podcast "The Joy of X" is wonderful - please listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts
Nicky Case's Amazing Firefly Interactive -
Great Kuramoto Model Interactive -
Strogatz, S. H. (2012). Sync: How order emerges from chaos in the universe, nature, and daily life. Hachette UK. -
Strogatz, S. H. (2000). From Kuramoto to Crawford: exploring the onset of synchronization in populations of coupled oscillators. Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, 143(1-4), 1-20. -
Goldsztein, G. H., Nadeau, A. N., & Strogatz, S. H. (2021). Synchronization of clocks and metronomes: A perturbation analysis based on multiple timescales. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, 31(2), 023109. -
The Broughton Suspension Bridge and the Resonance Disaster -
Bennett, M., Schatz, M. F., Rockwood, H., & Wiesenfeld, K. (2002). Huygens's clocks. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 458(2019), 563-579. -
Pantaleone, J. (2002). Synchronization of metronomes. American Journal of Physics, 70(10), 992-1000. -
Kuramoto, Y. (1975). Self-entrainment of a population of coupled non-linear oscillators. In International symposium on mathematical problems in theoretical physics (pp. 420-422). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. --
Great video by Minute Earth about Tidal Locking and the Moon -
Strogatz, S. H., Abrams, D. M., McRobie, A., Eckhardt, B., & Ott, E. (2005). Crowd synchrony on the Millennium Bridge. Nature, 438(7064), 43-44. -
Zhabotinsky, A. M. (2007). Belousov-zhabotinsky reaction. Scholarpedia, 2(9), 1435. -
Flavio H Fenton et al. (2008) Cardiac arrhythmia. Scholarpedia, 3(7):1665. -
Cherry, E. M., & Fenton, F. H. (2008). Visualization of spiral and scroll waves in simulated and experimental cardiac tissue. New Journal of Physics, 10(12), 125016. -
Tyson, J. J. (1994). What everyone should know about the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. In Frontiers in mathematical biology (pp. 569-587). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. -
Winfree, A. T. (2001). The geometry of biological time (Vol. 12). Springer Science & Business Media. -
Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Mac Malkawi, Oleksii Leonov, Michael Schneider, Jim Osmun, Tyson McDowell, Ludovic Robillard, jim buckmaster, fanime96, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Vincent, Lyvann Ferrusca, Alfred Wallace, Arjun Chakroborty, Joar Wandborg, Clayton Greenwell, Pindex, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi, Ron Neal
Written by Derek Muller and Petr Lebedev
Animation by Fabio Albertelli and Jakub Misiek
GFX and 3D animation by Jonny Hyman
Filmed by Derek Muller and Raquel Nuno
Edited by Derek Muller
Additional video supplied by Getty Images
Thumbnail by Ignat Berbeci
More footage from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
100 metronome video from
Intro animation by Jorge Cham
Thanks for the BZ footage from SteinbockGroup: and
Animation of waves in the heart from The Virtual Heart/ EM Cherry/ FH Fenton - and
Chemical materials and protocol provided by Mike Morris and the UCI Chemistry Outreach Program
Thanks to Alie Ward for title/thumbnail consultation
Thanks to Dr Juliette Becker and Dr James O'Donoghue for the planetary science help
Music from Jonny Hyman, Epidemic Sound "Seaweed" "Deeper Than The Ocean" "Ripple Effect"
Music also from Artlist "Children of Mystery"
Thumbnail by Ignat Berbeci




  • Does this guy run the Veratasium channel by himself?

    The LegendsThe Legends9 minuuttia sitten
  • the metronomes played still dre lol

    wesley drueckhammerwesley drueckhammer28 minuuttia sitten
  • Cool story about the "braking step".

    Gerr GerringGerr Gerring28 minuuttia sitten
  • For starters, your perfect orbits and perfect synchronization of metronomes is an illusion. There's nothing perfect about them. Look closely enough and you'll be lucky to find a moment of "perfection" imo.

    Gerr GerringGerr Gerring30 minuuttia sitten
  • Ha ha ha our beautiful life is a simulation running in its minimum capacity...can't even allot resources to make them nonsynchronous.

    DEEPAK JOSEPHDEEPAK JOSEPH44 minuuttia sitten
  • Plz make vedio on muon g-2

    Saqib IshaqSaqib Ishaq54 minuuttia sitten
  • hm.. play video: see start commercial; after start commercial click to some random point in time: commercial starts again. Maybe the content of this vid is good, but your monetizing options make it appear not good.

    LernenInVerschiedenenFormenLernenInVerschiedenenFormen59 minuuttia sitten
  • entropy: make things desorganizated sync: make things organizated and thats how its my house by myself

    Sandra SouzaSandra SouzaTunti sitten
  • So will we as mankind eventually sync together as one?

    Deana WillisDeana WillisTunti sitten
  • Dont watch this high

    tx weldertx welderTunti sitten
  • Well great, now I’ll never go to sleep thinking about this.

    Highball 734Highball 734Tunti sitten
  • and then there are cats.

    Nathan HansenNathan HansenTunti sitten
  • I would also like to say based on the last bit talking about parts of the whole, you can readily experience it with (good) games. Sometimes games with limited rule set and game mechanics end up creating scenarios in which the intended rule or skill is applied in ways that aren't necessarily intended in programming.

    b1uezerb1uezerTunti sitten
  • Wit of Never thought of looking up sumthin like this let alone come cross a video about sumthin life this but gotta say was unique and very interesting good video

    Jhon JonesJhon JonesTunti sitten
  • This makes me wonder if Tesla’s 3,6,9 has some sort of connection.

    dinosaur complaintsdinosaur complaintsTunti sitten
  • And this is how mainstream media do it. But failed coz social media disrupt their synchronization of telling lies.

    James ChuaJames Chua2 tuntia sitten
  • Maybe someday humans will synchronize with the universe

    HAUNEBU 2HAUNEBU 22 tuntia sitten
  • A lot of this has overlap with dialectical materialist philosophy, I highly recommend the book "Reason in Revolt" by Ted Grant and Alan Woods

    Mark RahmanMark Rahman2 tuntia sitten
  • "In complex systems, chaos is the norm." Humans: well i guess we're going to make the most complex systems we can for everything!

    eeeeee2 tuntia sitten
  • 4:42 I hit 4 bowls and had this riveting physics revelation.. 4:58 after 4 more bowls, I happy dance to the tickytocks balanced over la Croix cans and my tray only to find out they all blend to one tickytock from each other's twerkalating.... My eyes were closed the whole time....

    Jared GuerraJared Guerra3 tuntia sitten
    • there are moments, when they are at the same phase. might this favour the average frequency of the two?

      Ptao TomPtao Tom2 tuntia sitten
  • Try to look interested when it counts to you XD

    Kain CarlsonKain Carlson3 tuntia sitten
    • understand it at all. Showing the formula without discussing it doesn't help :( Isn't it basically the fact that first every pendulum follows the frequency that is forced onto the syst

      Ptao TomPtao Tom2 tuntia sitten
  • The 2nd law of thermodynamics is not provable and in serious doubt.

    Arne ServatiusArne Servatius4 tuntia sitten
  • the second law of thermodynamics is actually perfectly congruent with spontaneous synchronization. all it says is that an action must decrease the free energy of a system in order for it to be spontaneous (i.e. allowed to happen). burning a fire is spontaneous, because you can exploit the temperature gradient between the fire and its surroundings to transfer energy and do useful work- that’s how a generator works. by the same logic, synchronization is spontaneous because you could theoretically use a machine to extract the energy in the phase difference in order to produce useful work. at one point you even compare a synchronized system to a crystal. that actually demonstrates the second law of thermodynamics perfectly- a perfect crystal is perfectly homogenous, therefore there are no gradients to extract energy from. sorry for the nitpick, but a lot of chemistry students get this wrong and its annoying to see.

    Katie FriskKatie Frisk4 tuntia sitten
  • Please make a video about earthing science, if there is any; the believe of people in going barefoot to ground themselves to get rid of electrons.

    Comfort ZoneComfort Zone4 tuntia sitten
  • I could not help noticing the little hints of Prof. Strogatz to 'systems thinking' at 18:25 ("positive feedback loop"), 19:xx etc... Hopefully one day it will be taught in high school. For now, if you are looking for your next topic to educate us, may I suggest the book Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows

    rahpat01rahpat015 tuntia sitten
  • It cost several million pound to fix the bridge? Should have been paid by the company that screwed up the design in the first place.

    Ricky ReddRicky Redd5 tuntia sitten
  • I was a printer and operated a big flat bed machine which moved side to side. Notices were placed around the building saying "These machines must NOT be run in sequence. While bosses were out, apprentices deliberately ran three machines IN sequence. Milk bottles fell off tables and the building started to sway.

    Robert EdwardsRobert Edwards5 tuntia sitten
  • Can this work (in the vid speed of light) If light is in one just send the time(12:00) then to mars and say that you heve to wave with your hand to the erth at the time he sended you (12:20) and then see in a reeelyy good telescpe at what time he's waving If you think its a good ore badd idea pls why and how and im only 12 years old so spelling

    yuhero 8yuhero 85 tuntia sitten
  • Yoga is about tuning into this frequency to dance on the space time fabric! It's about unearthing the union below the layer of chaos!

    playfulfunkyplayfulfunky6 tuntia sitten
  • Wait wtf. How tf have I only discovered this channel now?! I watch HAI, Real Engineering, RLL, Wendover, VSauce, you name it, the whole circus. And then the algorithm decides to show me the most brainfuck video from the most brainfuck channel? Shortly before the next semester starts? To make me watch every video? And distract me from online class? Good lord, I'm done.

    LucasLucas6 tuntia sitten
  • Humans clapping together is completely a psychological phenomenon right? Does it have anything to do with Kuramoto Model?

    amal thejusamal thejus6 tuntia sitten
  • super

    Horst WelkerHorst Welker6 tuntia sitten
  • Well I feel like I learnt something there. Thanks!

    Robbie HumphriesRobbie Humphries7 tuntia sitten
  • Ok everything is pretty obvious but that chemical reaction is just sick 😳 How can you even think of something like that?’

    Misio PuchatekMisio Puchatek7 tuntia sitten
  • when you watch this but u know nothing 0_0

    AcedBerriesAcedBerries7 tuntia sitten
  • I really lie your videos and all the examples where super interesting. but the actual secret was shown for like two seconds and never discussed further. I actually did not understand it at all. Showing the formula without discussing it doesn't help :( Isn't it basically the fact that first every pendulum follows the frequency that is forced onto the system and second that this frequency is some sort of mix of the natural frequency of the pedulums combined or something like that? Even when they start with different frequencies, there are moments, when they are at the same phase. might this favour the average frequency of the two?

    GeilerRitterGeilerRitter7 tuntia sitten
  • Scientism is not science... Yawn

    Leia OrganaLeia Organa8 tuntia sitten
    • How is this "scientism"?

      Max XamMax Xam6 tuntia sitten
  • The Hungarian Clapping clip is not a spontaneous phenomenon, if you attend classical music concerts you will know this is the transition from applauding the director to requesting an encore. There is no cue, but everyone knows when to do it, and new goers just mimic the behaviour.

    Enrique RenteriaEnrique Renteria8 tuntia sitten
  • very cool

    taylor swift karaoketaylor swift karaoke8 tuntia sitten
  • I think performers have this same thing with their crowd it's like they feed off eachother subconsciously they're just in sync

    Boss TycoonBoss Tycoon8 tuntia sitten
  • *China* - Ok we make all the Hong Kongers like metronomes and they will fall in line!

    mwnciboomwnciboo8 tuntia sitten
  • Lockstep to Lockdown

    Ryan DeBoerRyan DeBoer8 tuntia sitten
  • All of these theories are mentioned in the holy Quran 🙏

    WackdaggerWackdagger8 tuntia sitten
    • No, they aren't.

      Max XamMax Xam6 tuntia sitten
  • Could synchronization be the key to the beginning and end of a universe? Everything is in rotation of some form in the universe that we can tell. We've heard and recorded the sounds of the universe like background radiation and there is a pattern to it, so what if, on a cosmic scale so large noone would live long enough to see any noticeable change, all matter was like a clock hand moving from one side to the other till they finally reach equilibrium and collapse into the next iteration of itself.

    Phoenix StonePhoenix Stone8 tuntia sitten
  • The 2ond law of thermodynamics does NOT state that things move from order to chaos. The 2ond law states specifically that energy moves from high concentration to low concentration. If you think about it in terms of heat (which is what thermodynamics is about), high energy particles (e.g. steam) behave very chaotically while low energy particles (e.g. ice) sit around being very orderly. Thus, in a larger sense, things move not from order to chaos but from useful chaos (high concentration) to useless order (low concentration). The heat death of the universe won't be mass chaos, it'll be perfect order where there is no differentiation between any part of space and identical particles are evenly distributed through out the universe. In comparison, the big bang was total chaos. The popular misconception that the 2ond law states that things move from order to chaos is just that, a misconception. You don't need to look far to realize that it is a misconception.

    Darc SysterDarc Syster8 tuntia sitten
  • The work put in the video Magnificent 👌🏻

    Hwidi MHwidi M9 tuntia sitten
  • What happens when you have two small metronomes and 1 much bigger one. Will the smaller ones (try to) sync with the bigger one? And if so: lets call the bigger one: "Charisma" then.

    T.S.M.PT.S.M.P9 tuntia sitten
  • Hey! Veritasium, Derek here.

    That one GuyThat one Guy9 tuntia sitten
  • Can this be applied to how women sync periods?

    王若冰王若冰9 tuntia sitten
  • TIL I have been saying "longitude" wrong all these years. My entire world view is collapsing- up is down, left is right, the Earth is flat... wait... is that how you become a flat Earther?

    Brooks CarlsonBrooks Carlson9 tuntia sitten
  • Goes on to show how truly amazingly Christ designed the universe.

    Created BeingCreated Being10 tuntia sitten
  • Great video

    Joy 3000Joy 300010 tuntia sitten
  • In answer to your first question GOD

    1110 tuntia sitten
  • Fuuuutuuuuuure

    wannabeMLGprowannabeMLGpro10 tuntia sitten
  • I now recall a playground structure which wobbled while I traversed. Similar to a tightrope but with hand-ropes to grasp. An inverted triangle design. Simple physics

    Jay StarJay Star10 tuntia sitten
  • The same thing that "corrects the current" DESPITE the pebble thrown into the river. No 'X-Men' viewers?

    Jay StarJay Star10 tuntia sitten
  • The clip where the audience was clapping and then when they all clapped in sync freaked me out. How beautiful nature is, man

    ChronoHaxx GamingChronoHaxx Gaming11 tuntia sitten
  • I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a FIstart video like this in a while. Wish it was longer

    ch13tch13t11 tuntia sitten
  • Bridge is wobbling on collapse. People still decide to walk across it.

    Joshua HeathcoteJoshua Heathcote11 tuntia sitten
  • the clapping looks completely insane, like if you're the one person in the room out of synch you think they're aliens or a cult

    LeoVomendLeoVomend11 tuntia sitten
  • 18:00 a few of those people on the edge looks like they're _pushing_ the bride back and forth

    you know meyou know me11 tuntia sitten
  • I give Huygens a lot of credit for finding a physical reason for this - they were hung from the same beam - instead of some garbage about the aether or spirits or such. It's not "spooky action at a distance" if you can find a reason for it.

    Karl DavisKarl Davis11 tuntia sitten
  • It happens in groups of women with their menestral cycle- and it has nothing to do with being board !

    She DMontfordShe DMontford12 tuntia sitten
  • Tip on the pronunciation of "Huygens": don't say hoygens, say howgens, that's closer to what it should sound like.

    Dani BananiDani Banani12 tuntia sitten
  • the clapping thing, thats trueee mostly you just don't wanna be 'off sync' and start clapping to the beat majority is clapping to and then it just...syncs

    you know meyou know me12 tuntia sitten
  • I present comrade from indonesia my friend 🌐🌍🌎🌏🌐

    Robby Real 808Robby Real 80812 tuntia sitten
  • When the metronomes got in sync, I literally smiled to myself XD

    DOD OKDOD OK12 tuntia sitten
  • Why the planets don't lock their rotation with the sun, like moons do with their planets?

    Matthaeus MunizMatthaeus Muniz12 tuntia sitten
  • The cloudy umbrella intralysosomally cover because quince laparoscopically pick afore a tart delete. grotesque, changeable soap

    Salvatore URSalvatore UR12 tuntia sitten
  • "the whole is more than just the sum of the parts". Buy two Ajax, get 1 free drinking glass

    AH MAH M12 tuntia sitten
  • One word ..... GOD ❤️

    Mikey Kansten PoyyMikey Kansten Poyy12 tuntia sitten
  • Does occur without the fizzy drinks table?

    Luke DayLuke Day12 tuntia sitten
  • But would this happen if the metronomes were on a solid surface..?

    Promethious BPromethious B13 tuntia sitten
  • Damn, I get it ! That's crazy

    TribusTribus13 tuntia sitten
  • This is how the law of attraction actually works, from the book secret, so its just that, idea reinforcing actions and actions/situations reinforcing ideas etc etc, also how confirmation biases and biases in general operate. This does not stop with the physical aspects.

    ShadoWolfShadoWolf14 tuntia sitten
  • The sticky eyelash disappointedly decorate because partridge technically clear apropos a minor iran. sloppy, puzzled anger

    Yancy SpeckingYancy Specking14 tuntia sitten
  • I dont know why, but I think I could use/correlate this in stock market. Give me an year, I will update you how it went. Meet you in 2022. Thank you

    mohan krishnamohan krishna14 tuntia sitten
  • Why do the Huygens' pendulums synchronised with 180 degrees offset ("when one ticks, the other tocks") but the metronomes on the "wobbly" platform get synchronised with no offset?

    Arman KhArman Kh14 tuntia sitten
  • The deadpan minister eventually transport because bandana pathohistologically nail into a aberrant land. ratty, hallowed cupboard

    Ker LozanoKer Lozano14 tuntia sitten
  • What you call "chaos" is in your mind. Your mind understands by chaos, an order that canot bne fully understood due its complexity, and that's called epystemologycal randomness. Chaos is for you the opposiet to order and perfection; but your idea of order and perfection are not based on what you wish would be order and perfection. The order and perfection you talk about is a frozen lake; and trhat you call chaos is Harmony; dynamic order, etc.

    OverxpossedOverxpossed14 tuntia sitten
  • Happens with women, too, ppl.

    Vincent James VoiceVincent James Voice15 tuntia sitten
  • Damn.. I get so engrossed in your videos that I forget to like them

    hgfuhgvghgfuhgvg15 tuntia sitten
  • So what is the platform in womens menstrual cycles? They have the same phenomenon.

    Wu WeiWu Wei16 tuntia sitten
  • One of the best, if not the best video that I saw on FIstart, ever. Congrats and thank you.

    Rafael SilvaRafael Silva16 tuntia sitten
  • That's also why I don't trust science anymore. The whole is always emergent.

    An MemeAn Meme16 tuntia sitten
  • Question is, mostly to get something synchronised we need to wait until it get synchronised. Can we limit the required time of the synchronisation? I am sure if we can do it so this might open a new possibilities to treat cancer as we can get the uncontrolled cell division and metastasis in a synchronisation.

    Bagdad AhmedBagdad Ahmed16 tuntia sitten
  • Damn, the quality of this video was legit

    Jasmeet SinghJasmeet Singh16 tuntia sitten
  • The first idea in my head about this was about the synchronizing clapping of crowds.

    David SupranesDavid Supranes16 tuntia sitten
  • Im not a science person but I watched and listened without skipping. Thats how good this video is.

    a ma m17 tuntia sitten
  • The hypnotic baboon lily ski because lobster contrarily imagine excluding a knotty noise. spurious, blushing break

    Wang RowanWang Rowan17 tuntia sitten
  • The juvenile butane optically interfere because bat conservatively pause around a dreary egypt. cruel, highfalutin german

    Jane LopezJane Lopez17 tuntia sitten
  • How does this affect entropy?

    Olivia C-GOlivia C-G18 tuntia sitten
  • very good

    Jim CornellJim Cornell18 tuntia sitten
  • order is an illusion :D

    Joseph BongiornoJoseph Bongiorno18 tuntia sitten
  • did you stabilize the shot of them rocking the bridge?

    gakpad the junkrat boygakpad the junkrat boy18 tuntia sitten
  • The longing sandwich nally wobble because hall ethnopharmacologically hop astride a red ferryboat. nutty, eager cent

    spencer tomspencer tom19 tuntia sitten
  • Just another conspiracy

    shafiq alamshafiq alam19 tuntia sitten
  • I once decided to walk across a bridge that had a railway underneath it, the train just happened to also be crossing the bridge. The entire time I was holding onto something because it felt like I was gonna go flying over the rail.

    Vladyslav KarasovVladyslav Karasov19 tuntia sitten
  • Or in other words Resonance frequency ...

    Black GinkgoBlack Ginkgo19 tuntia sitten
  • Very nice :)

    Julio figoJulio figo19 tuntia sitten