Have you ever been at a rock show and stood there wondering why some people take it upon themselves to create a mosh pit; throwing elbows, kicking and causing basic chaos by knocking the dog out of each other with a smile on their face. Leave it to four scientists from Cornell University to study this strange behavior.

The study called "Collective Motion of Moshers at Heavy Metal Concerts" has determined that there are two different types of moshing. After a extensive study of footage taken from mosh pits at rock shows, the scientists from Cornell's Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics and Department of Physics (with a title like that you know these folks are serious) have found there are two types of moshing.

There is the "disorganized" mosh pit, where the participants whack each other from all different directions; and the "circle pit" where those involved are actually organized and in unison.

The study arrived at the conclusion that this behavior is called "flocking" where a number of animals of one kind, especially sheep, goats, or birds, that keep or feed together or are herded together. Or in the case of the mosh pit; a large number of people; crowd.

Wow, who knew?

So, the next time you're at a rock show, you can amaze all of your buds with this new found knowledge of why people mosh.

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