The Steel Pendulum

Five suspended chrome spheres were hanging in dead silence on the desk's Newton's cradle! Zero hesitation, brain fired instantly! I clamped my felt teeth around the leftmost metal ball, backed up two inches to stretch the thin nylon strings taut, and let go—SNAP! The steel sphere plunged downward and smacked the line—CLACK! The energy shot straight through the three middle balls without moving them a hair, launching the far sphere flying into the air! TICK-CLACK-TICK-CLACK! The rhythm took off like a tiny mechanical heartbeat! I planted both plush feet on the desk blotter, shoved my wide open snout inches from the swinging chrome, watching the reflections jitter across my white teeth in hyper-speed!