Can one ball escape 5 rings?

One ball bounces inside 5 spinning rings. It escapes a ring only when that ring's gap lines up with the ball, and then the ring shatters.

How it works

Each ring has a gap and spins at its own speed, so the gaps rarely line up. The ball bounces off the inner ring until it slips through, then the next ring becomes the new wall. Every bounce plays the next note of Ode to Joy, so the video has a melody that follows the physics. When the last ring breaks, the rings re-form and the video loops.

Questions

How long does it take the ball to escape all 5 rings?

With this seed it takes about 28 seconds. A different seed gives a different time, because the gaps line up at different moments.

Why do the rings get harder to escape?

The outer rings have smaller gaps and spin faster, so the ball has to wait longer for a gap that fits.

Is this real physics or an animation?

It is a physics simulation. Collisions are computed 60 times per second from gravity, velocity and bounce rules, then drawn. Nothing is hand-animated.

Will it look the same every time?

Yes. Each video uses a fixed random seed, so the same run plays identically every time, on this site and in the video.