Resonance is the phenomenon by which a vibrating body is driven to vibrate at a higher frequency when acted upon by an external vibrating force at the natural frequency (of the first body). This is to say, when an external vibration (or oscillation) acts upon an initial vibrating object with the same natural frequency, the result is an abnormally huge vibrating force. Resonance occurs in many forms, such as light and mechanical waves.
A practical example of resonance is the Tacoma Bridge collapse. When high speeds winds blew at the structure's natural frequency, the bridge vibrated uncontrollably with a much higher frequency, thus breaking apart when the supports could no longer hold (Harish, 2020). The dangers are resonance is also the reason why people walking on a feeble bridge are asked to break their steps to prevent building a harmonic frequency at the bridge's natural frequency, which could drive it beyond sustainable frequencies and break it.
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Resonance also explains why people seated in an auditorium with audio speakers placed at distant corners will experience varying pitches. Those sitting equidistantly from the sources will hear a clear, loud voice above either speaker's actual volume. However, those seated elsewhere might hear partially distorted or uneven pitches due to destructive interference when the individual frequencies interfere.
When a long metallic pillar like the shoulder of a bridge is struck with another object from a far end, we feel the vibrations a few moments before we hear the sound of impact. That is because the steel pillar is metallic and thus denser, permitting sound waves to travel faster (as vibrations). On the other hand, the air is more elastic and less dense. Therefore, sound waves travel much slower. Also, when standing on or close to railway lines, we often feel them vibrating before we can hear the train's sound when, in the real sense, they are produced simultaneously. That is because mechanical sound waves travel faster in solids (tracks) than in air.
References
Harish, A. (2020, January 27). “Why the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapsed: An Engineering Analysis.” Sim Scale . Retrieved https://www.simscale.com/blog/2018/07/tacoma-narrows-bridge-collapse/
