Properly timed small impulses can overpower far larger forces through resonance

Evidence

Even as a boy, I observed that one man alone by giving these impulses at the right instant was able to ring a bell so large that when four, or even six, men seized the rope and tried to stop it they were lifted from the ground, all of them together being unable to counterbalance the momentum which a single man, by properly-timed pulls, had given it. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 880

Categorization

• CANDY: A vivid, self-contained anecdote about a single man ringing a huge bell that six men couldn’t stop — great elevator-conversation fact.