Dear Keith and others,
I wonder if there if a similarity here between the propagation of the
'auditory ripples' and the occurrence of spontaneous traffic jams on
motorways...?
Cars travelling on a motorway are analogous to the train carriages; the
delay in acceleration between carriages is like the delay between a car
in front braking and the time when you apply your car's brakes to avoid
hitting it. The cars are moving forwards but the 'braking wave' is
propagated backwards. It seems to me that if the speed of propagation of
the 'braking wave' exceeds the speed of the cars, then a jam can result.
I'm sure I've seen reports on this somewhere, but it's not my area so I
don't have a reference to hand.
Regards,
Guy
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