The chaotic pendulum

The platform of this toy is divided into six areas describing six different situations in a game of football: scoring a goal, a penalty kick, a corner, a foul, a throw-in and off-side. There is a magnet hidden under each area and there is also one in the ball. The bottom pole of the ball and the top poles of the platform are of the same sign. The ball avoids stopping above any of the areas.

The movements of the ball over the magnets is absolutely chaotic. Sometimes you get the impression that the ball is going to stop above one of the areas, and that it is suddenly attracted to another area. Theoretically, it cannot be foreseen where the ball is going to stop. Even a small change of the initial ball position leads to a different result, which is a characteristic feature of the chaotic movement.

This is also the case with a real football match. You never know what the score is going to be before the final whistle. The theory of chaos has been employed in many scientific fields, the examples being forecasting the weather or prediction the Stock Exchange quotations.