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The application of the motion of a vertically suspended mass-spring system
released under tension is studied focusing upon the delay timescale for the
bottom mass as a function of the spring constants and masses. This
``hang-time", reminiscent of the Coyote and Road Runner cartoons, is quantified
using the far-field asymptotic expansion of the bottom mass' Laplace transform.
These asymptotics are connected to the short time mass dynamics through
Tauberian identities and explicit residue calculations. It is shown, perhaps
paradoxically, that this delay timescale is maximized in the large mass limit
of the top ``boulder". Experiments are presented and compared with the
theoretical predictions. This system is an exciting example for the teaching of
mass-spring dynamics in classes on Ordinary Differential Equations, and does
not require any normal mode calculations for these predictions.
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