Swing Low?

Sometimes scientists get to have fun while they work.

Raymond Goldstein of the University of Cambridge, along with some colleagues, was contacted by a multinational corporation that made things like soaps and shampoos to see if there was a physical explanation for the shape of the ponytail in human hair. Turns out to have been a rather complicated process, as the team had to account for the variations that might be caused by the characteristics of some 100,000 individual strands of hair. Goldstein said:

“Somehow...a bunch of balding, middle-aged men sitting around a table came up with the idea that the ponytail was the embodiment of all this interesting physics.”

The different factors were combined to create the "Rapunzel number" of a human head of hair that predicted what a ponytail made of that hair would do regarding shape and movement and such.

As far as I can tell from the story, neither the presence of Chantilly lace nor a pretty face is a determining factor in calculating the Rapunzel number. For an alternative finding, see Bopper, B., "Making the World Go 'Round: The Effects of the Ponytail (Hanging Down) on Personal Behavior and Spending Habits."

(ETA: Another take on this project may be found here)