BBC presenter and blogger Steve Mould’s mesmerizing video depicting a ‘chain fountain’ was viewed over a million times on YouTube since it was posted last February. Now, a team of physicists offers an explanation for the seemingly gravity-defying behaviour of the chain.

Original research article published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences on January 15, 2014.

Name and affiliation of selected author

Joseph S. Biggins, Cambridge University