Which marble will finish first?
Here, the yellow marble is the winner by a very slight amount.
Can you predict the outcome of this case?
Here, the red marble is the clear winner.
There are cases where the outcome is what we might have predicted.
However, there are also cases where the outcome is completely contrary to what we would have thought.
Let’s now try cases where all the marbles start at different positions.
Starting in front is not necessarily an advantage.
This example has a very important life lesson.
The spiral staircase is enclosed in an invisible hollow cylinder, so the marbles can’t fall out.
The red marble is in first place.
The blue marble is far behind.
However, now something unexpected happens.
The blue marble, which had been in last place, suddenly takes the lead.
This demonstrates that being far behind, and even being in last place, is not a reason to give up hope.
Let’s now try something new.
Consider marbles on a rotating table.
Contrary to what we might expect, the marbles are not automatically ejected from the table.
Paradoxically, the reason the marbles are able to stay on the table so well is because they are round.
If we instead replace the spheres with cubes, the results are completely different.
Now, we see the types or results we might have initially expected.
Let’s now return to marbles.
In this example, the blue marble, which started furthest behind, is the only marble able to finish the race.
On the other hand, if we try to make the starting conditions as identical as possible, the butterfly effect may play an important role.
This is discussed in detail in the video "Beauty from Chaos."