What is resonant frequency, and how do things like bridges collapse because of it?
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If you’ve ever ridden a swing in a playground, then you are already familiar with resonance and resonant frequencies. To get the swing to go higher and higher, you push at the right time (at the resonant frequency of the swing).
By adding more pushes at the correct time, the swing goes higher and higher as the energy of the movement increases each time you push.
But for bridges (and buildings) “swinging” or oscillations are undesirable. And you don’t want to have things that keep adding energy to that oscillation – for example wind or people walking on a bridge. In badly designed bridges, that could (unlikely, but possible) cause the bridge to fail.
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