«Some scientists think it could be connected to the transverse momentum of the quarks and gluons inside the proton —
a bouncing kind of motion of these subcomponents that is perpendicular to the protons» direction of travel,» said Brookhaven physicist Elke Aschenauer, a leader in the spin program at RHIC.
Cornell University roboticist Hod Lipson and his Ph.D. student Michael Schmidt developed their system to analyze data from the
kinds of mechanics experiments that college students encounter in introductory physics courses: observing the
motion of a swinging pendulum or
of two weights
bouncing on connected springs, for instance.