The Galton Board

This is not chaos at all 😂 nor is it random

It’s random from the pov of each ball but the structure containing it and the forces acting on the each ball are predetermined. Most balls end up in the middle columns because they are pulled by gravity through the least resistance path. The odd balls dropping to the sides end up there because of interactions with other balls or the walls of the structure. In this simple simulation, the middle is where balls want to be.

You can't fool me, that's Plinko

There is nothing random about anything… particularly in what he says about what’s random.

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Or are we seeing an interference pattern based on the input. If we inverted the triangle shape input, will we see an inverted bell curve?

Here we go. The thing is guided. The central release point, the geometry of the obstacles, the inclined lateral boundaries and the discrete end deposits ensure the path of the spheres. The Gaussian distribution is real, but it has been optimized for visual effect.

If each ball went down one at a time without interacting with one another would the result be the same?

The Galton Board, invented by Sir Francis Galton, visually demonstrates how random events can form a predictable bell curve, a principle seen in stock markets, casino odds, and even human genetics, showcasing the surprising order in chaos. 😳

Along the way, there are a bunch of branching points. You could modify those points to achieve many different distributions at the end. (e.g. make everything end up on the left edge) In a way, this is what genes and ideas do: they take a somewhat random process and guide it.