Can anyone tell me what the formula to calculate somethings resonant frequency is?
To clarify, by resonant frequency I mean the specific frequency that everything has at which it is naturally vibrating.
I have a VERY vague memory from High School physics course, but google is not helping me and I cannot remember the name of the formula. (or Im asking the wrong questions, also possible).
THanks.
the previous post was on electric circuitry which is not what you appera to be looking for. The resonant frequencies of most real objects cannot be calculated simply as it is too complicated. However, for simple objects like a spring it is fairly easy - see http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/shm2.html
If you’re looking for damped natural frequency (w[sub]d[/sub])* a.k.a. resonant frequency, you can find the formula here (you have to scroll down a little ways). The site also includes plain old natural frequency, w[sub]n[/sub].
*The ‘w’ is intended to designate the lower-case Greek letter ‘omega’. I see on preview that we don’t have Symbol font anymore.
I don’t think most objects can be said to be ‘naturally vibrating’ at some frequency, if you meant that it does so without external influence (unless you’re talking about very small particles). It might be clearer to say ‘the frequency at which they will vibrate’ if they are acted upon somehow.
And Strainger, we still have the [symbol]Symbol[/symbol] font, only it’s curiously not in the list of fonts; the older [sym] tags don’t work either. You have to either type [sym[sub][/sub]bol]w[/sym[sup][/sup]bol] or [FO[sub][/sub]NT = symbol]w[/fo[sub][/sub]nt] to get [symbol]w[/symbol]
Thanks guys, but thats not exactly what I meant. From the dim recess of my memory I seem to recall we were learning something to do with light. As an aside we learned a formula to calculate the resonace of all matter at the atomic level, although in practice anything larger than a few atoms would have a really negligible resonance. For some reason I seem to associate the guy who came up with the calculation with the name Max or Maxwell? Ring a bell with anyone? I know he wouldve had SOMETHING to do with light energy research.
The reason Im asking is that I want to calculate at what frequency a specific material/element will start to vibrate in sympathy to a tone.
preview…must hit preview.
Meant to add, thats exactly what I was talking about Panamajack.
The formula WAS for small particles.
ahhh you are talking wave-particle duality - a totally different kettle of fish and deBroglie’s equation.
see http://www.qmw.ac.uk/~zgap118/4/
http://www.chem.uidaho.edu/~honors/debrog.html
and lots of others.
The wavelength of any large object (i.e. a golfball) is very small (too small to be measured)
I think you are on the wrong track from your last posts. A real object’s deBroglie’ wavelength depends on its velocity and size- there is no “natural frequency” of any material (no matter what New agers Crystal gazers will tell you). However, something like an electron confined to an atom does have a natural frequency, because its size and momemtum is well defined.
that was it!
Thanks a lot!
(deBroglie? Now where the he*l did I get Max from???)
you were thinking about Max Planck