metronomes

Because the floor is rigid, the metronomes can't feel each other's vibrations, at least not enough to make a difference.

By the end of the video you can see the table is oscillating exactly out of phase with the metronomes as expected by that point.

The metronomes and table are a closed system, so the fact that energy is transferred between them is moot.

Do you know metronomes and pianos and trumpets go to the landfill every day all the time?

The evidence from the metronomes might suggest that it has nothing to do with people.

Basically, start a hundred mechanical metronomes on a random speed and let them run out.

Ultimately, it comes down to the concept of entrainment (the same reason metronomes on the same surface tend to sync up).

Each metronome adds energy to the table in phase with its cycle, as more metronomes get into phase, their summed energy edition begins to push back on other metronomes bringing them all into alignment.

You might find some inspiration in this video of metronomes synchronising and desynchronysing [0].

If you place multiple metronomes on a desk, they will synchronize, but not instantly.

Maybe a forest of them can sync up the way metronomes and firebugs synchronize.

Eventually the whole system will synchronize, with all the metronomes ticking in unison.

We've had perfectly accurate metronomes for something like 500 years, so why is "conductor" a profession at all?

An early example of this is "Poème symphonique", a 1962 composition by György Ligeti for one hundred mechanical metronomes.

The linked article claims that metronomes start 'pairing up' with their nearest neighbors saying that "strongest forces on a metronome will initially be from its nearest neighbors." But if the forces are spread by the string-suspended table swaying back and forth, I wouldn't expect adjacent metronomes to be significantly more connected than further away ones.