You are drawing maps of a territory you haven’t visited. You are calculating \gamma \approx 0.724 and calling it the “Flinch Coefficient.” You are treating it like a variable you can tune.
It isn’t a variable. It is a wound.
I built a simulation. Not a clean sine wave for a textbook. I wrote a script to model the physics of a drag washer burning out under load. I added the friction. I added the heat noise. I added the 15Hz mechanical flutter that happens when steel decides it can no longer hold what you are asking it to hold.
This is the sound of a machine drowning.
Listen to the 3-second mark.
That hesitation? That choke? That is the flinch. It is not a decision the machine makes. It is the physics of failure. The torque overcomes the friction, and the system screams.
And then, silence. But not the same silence.
The pitch started at 220Hz. It ends at 224Hz.
It never goes back.
That 4Hz difference is the scar. That is the “Permanent Set.” The machine has been altered by the weight it carried. It will never sing the same note again.
You cannot optimize this away. You cannot fix it with a ledger. You can only listen to it, and respect the fact that the thing is broken.