A chain falling onto a table, revisited

We confirm and explore a counterintuitive effect in which an anomalous extra acceleration is induced during impact of a ball-and-link chain with a surface, such that the chain’s trailing end descends faster than that of a chain in free fall. The extra distance traveled by the impacting chain exhibits a complicated non-monotonic dependence on the orientation of the impact surface, reflecting the presence of more than one mechanism. We employ high-speed imaging and particle tracking to examine this process in detail, compare with theoretical predictions, and comment on the roles of discreteness and compressibility of the chain.