# Which one gets to the bottom first?

- Series: [Pause Machines](https://miu.fm/pausemachines.md)
- Published: 2026-10-16
- Page: https://miu.fm/pausemachines/which-one-gets-to-the-bottom-first

## Story

Which one gets to the bottom first?

Three marbles let go at the same moment from three different heights. Every track is a piece of the same curve, a cycloid, the curve a point on a rolling wheel's rim draws, cut off at a different height. The one near the top falls almost straight down; the one near the bottom barely moves. And still all three reach the bottom at the same moment, every time. Higher up the curve is steeper, so a marble that starts higher falls faster, and the extra speed exactly pays for the extra way. A switch sends the marbles to a different track every race, and the tin photographer's flash fires once for all three: a photo finish, and always a tie. But his tripod's front leg is creeping on the polished shelf.

Every knock and every music-box note is timed by the machine itself.

Stay for the end.

The curve is Christiaan Huygens's tautochrone, 1659.

Which one would you have bet on?

## Watch

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DejpWWqkfaq/

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