What Causes the Rocks to Slide on Death Valley's Racetrack Playa?

[Evo]

Very cool! Thanks billiards!

 

[davenn]

^^ what Evo said ^^

 

[AlephZero]

The video is wrong about this being "the most boring experiment ever". Two years wait is nothing compared with http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28402709

Prof Mainstone, however, never saw the pitch in motion. In 1979, the sixth drop went on a weekend. In 1988,
with the experiment proudly displayed at Brisbane's World Expo, Prof Mainstone was fetching a drink when the seventh drop fell. By 2000, a video camera had been set up to capture drop number eight, but it malfunctioned at the crucial moment.

When the ninth drop fell in April this year it was watched by three webcams and thousands of online enthusiasts - but not by Prof Mainstone, who died eight months earlier at the age of 78.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A new paper claims to have finally solved this one:

Finally! It only took about 100 years. :) Until now the explanations involved far too much arm waving. But this one seems to be definitive. Thanks for the post.

 

[Astronuc]

The story was covered on NPR.

http://www.npr.org/2014/08/28/343681708/an-icy-solution-to-the-mystery-of-the-slithering-stones