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Proton therapy

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Robert R. Wilson: 1914–2000

The swinging ponytail

Watch any jogger with a ponytail and you will see that the ponytail oscillates sideways. How can this be when its stimulation is a vertical bobbing of the head?

The terms in bold link to topics in the AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA A-level specifications, as well as the IB, Pre-U and SQA exam specifications.

Physics explains how a vertical motion can stimulate a sideways oscillation by comparing a ponytail with a simple pendulum, and delving into the theory of parametric oscillators.

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Previous

Proton therapy

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Robert R. Wilson: 1914–2000

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