Tag Archives: orbital resonances

Resonating Resonances!

RRRrrrrrssssssssssnnnnnncccccccceeee.

I’m sorry, I was doing an impression of a resonating object there, mainly because I feel that starting with a description of what resonance is would be pointless. Everyone knows what “to resonate” means, and as far as physical principles goes all schoolchildren get taught about Galileo Galilei and oscillating pendulums when they’re doing their GCSEs. Basically if you have something undergoing a persistent, periodic motion, then it will transfer and store energy with more efficiency at certain specific frequencies resulting in a greater amplitude of motion. Most people understand this in the context of pendulums, as above – where, if you release a pendulum and let it settle for a few seconds, it will eventually swing with a period 

where l is the length of the pendulum and g is the pendulum’s acceleration due to gravity.

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