Harmonic resonance could be the “ghost,” to detect that, a vibration transducer (acoustic pickup for a guitar) could be attached to the top bar and the vibrations viewed on an oscilliscope.

A sensitive torque meter, attached to the swing itself, could determine the amount of force being exerted upon the seat. The result of that readout could be indicative of the power that is causing the event.

Other than that… call Ghostbusters.

Oh, wait. That’s what preview’s for.

Nevermind.

Someone is right next to the swings then leaves at the beginning of the video. Perhaps there was a little push and momentum/inertia fueled by the force graviy did the rest. The chain link on top was oiled to provide as little friction as possible to allow acceleration. Eventually the oil is used up and friction will take over to start the deceleration.

Just to further confuse the issue.

However, there’s no chance that the wind is that consistent for a four day period, or over a four month timeframe.

In the first video, the middle seat appears to be noticably different from the outer two, but in the metro video they all look identical.

Magnetism is not viable. The size and strength of magnets required to generate the amount of movement shown would require a significant power source, and a rare-earth magnet powerful enough to do that without electromotive force would be too big to hide anywhere nearby. Buried in the sand wouldn’t work, to be strong enough to oscillate one seat at that distance, it would drive the other two strongly as well, though in different directions.

Resonance wouldn’t generate motion of this amplitude in anything but a rigid structure, and chain links are anything but rigid.

Without a much closer and better look at the attachment points for the chains to know for sure, it might be possible to rig a small, oscillating motor that moves one chain’s eyebolt. Such a movement would start out tiny, but the movement itself would provide positive feedback for increasing amplitude, as long as the oscillating period matched the swing rate of the seat. This would come close to fitting the observed behavior, in that each oscillation leads with one side of the seat, and the same side each time. Such a device could be remote controlled from distances similar to an RC plane or car.

Ha We, that can’t be it. Resonance only works on long objects that are made from rigid materials. The chain links are not physically connected to each other.

jihadwatcher on October 25, 2007 at 2:12 PM

I agree with Ha We that it’s like Galloping Gertie. The swing DOES have a resonance. It’s the frequency of the swing’s swing!

It’s probably not relevant, but the swings are connected by the playset frame. Coupled oscillators. There’s a story about two wall pendulum clocks that would always eventually synchronize their pendulums. Nobody could understand it until they found the vibrations between them were being transmitted via the wall.

The movement of the swings in the wind is probably adding to the bar’s own vibrations from the wind, and all the energy of that resonance gets transferred to the center swing which is, of course, connected to the portion of the bar that would be resonating the most.

I rule out the magnets because its too easily measurable and the magnets needed to produce such a repulsive force would be very strong and commercially expensive.

If they still move under no wind and magnets have been ruled out, then my guess is resonance with some vibration coming from the ground. (Perhaps from one of the secret underground bases we evil conservatives love to build so often.)

It’s a mechanical sort of build up to the swinging. Not like someone is making it happen.

(It ain’t Puff the Magic Dragon)

Anyways, the replacement for the stolen swing does the same trick.
http://www.infobae.com/notas/nota.php?Idx=334281&IdxSeccion=1

If the magnetic field were employed lower down the chain it could induce swinging faster, but it would probably visibly affect the chain, again, unless it were stiffened. Assuming the chain has not been modified, I don’t think the swinging is a result of a magnetic field unless it is massive. It would have to affect the whole chain or at least somewhere near the bottom, most likely the seat.

I haven’t been a kid for a long time but I could almost swear that I’ve seen this same affect before.

I had built for my wife a rigid pipe arrangement for hanging some of her potted plants that she was starting prior to transplanting into the ground. One spring she had a bunch of addition plants due to a landscaping change she wanted to do.

To make room for the additional plants I constructed a temporary expansion out of PVC I had available rather than make another permanent steel pipe structure since I did not want to by more pipe just for that purpose of a temporary nature and would use what was available.

What occurred was that when my wife watered the plants you would see a similar effect to that in the film. Plants hanging from the PVC would put extra weight on the PVC just enough to cause a slight bowing due to the extra weight of the water in the pots. This started a swinging motion to the pots that did not occur on the ones hung from the steel structure. The plants would swing independent of the wind until the moisture dried out and then they would return to a stationary hanging mode until the next watering.

Non paranormal: a simple little magic trick, maybe some fishing lines, that woman there at the beginning and lack of sound has me thinking this is a hoax.

Paranormal: Possible haunting, from the way it sounds, I’d say it’s a Residual style haunting if it’s the case (Residual hauntings are those that are kind of like a recording of an event, it just keeps playing it over and over again)

Still Untill Someone is willing to explain the lack of sound and why that woman is there in the beginning, I’m going to look at that “Haunted” swing with a skeptics eye