Resonance

In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to vibrate with increasing amplitudes at some frequencies of excitation. These are known as the system's resonant frequencies (or resonance frequencies). The resonator may have a fundamental frequency, and any number of harmonics.

Resonance effect for various input frequencies and damping coefficients

An example of useful effect of resonant frequency is a guitar string which makes a characteristic noise when it is touched. The noise depends on how thick or slack the string is.

Another example can be seen in a playground swing. There is one specific rate at which you must push away a person on a swing to cause the swing to go high. This rate is the resonant frequency.

In earthquake engineering, on contrary, any possibility of a resonance is detrimental for the building structure.

The Kirkwood gap and other connections among orbits are caused by orbital resonance.

Related pages

• Resonator
• Seismic damper
• Vibration control
• Vibration isolation