NewtonsCradleComplicated is available as:
This is a modified version of the Newton's cradle demo that shows a more complicated dynamic behavior. The key change is the initial states of balls. In this demo, both ball #1 and ball #2 are moved away from their equilibrium positions but start at different angles of PI/8 and PI/16.
Because the period of a pendulum depends on not only its sizes but also the initial angle, ball #1 and #2 do not reach their equilibrium positions at the same time. Therefore, the collisions between ball #1 and #2 and between ball #2 and #3 do not happen at the exactly same time. This makes the model's dynamics complicated.
In particular, because ball #2 has a smaller initial angle than that of ball #1, its period is smaller. Therefore, ball #2 first collides with ball #3, then with ball #1, and then with ball #3 again. All these collisions happen at different times. Zoom in the velocities plot for a better understanding of this.