There are all sorts of resonances around us, in the world, in our culture, and in our technology. A tidal resonance causes the 55 foot tides in the Bay of Fundy. Mechanical and acoustical resonances and their control are at the center of practically every musical instrument that ever existed. Even our voices and speech are based on controlling the resonances in our throat and mouth. Technology is also a heavy user of resonance. All clocks, radios, televisions, and gps navigating systems use electronic resonators at their very core. Doctors use magnetic resonance imaging or MRI to sense the resonances in atomic nuclei to map the insides of their patients. In spite of the great diversity of resonators, they all share many common properties. In this blog, we will delve into their various aspects. It is hoped that this will serve both the students and professionals who would like to understand more about resonators. I hope all will enjoy the animations.

For a list of all topics discussed, scroll down to the very bottom of the blog, or click here.

Origins of Newton's laws of motion

Non-mathematical introduction to relativity

Three types of waves: traveling waves, standing waves and rotating waves new

History of mechanical clocks with animations
Understanding a mechanical clock with animations
includes pendulum, balance wheel, and quartz clocks

Water waves, Fourier analysis


Thursday, February 1, 2007

Permitted use of material on this blog and how to download animations from it.

The author encourages others to copy and use individual figures and animations (five or less per web site) contained in this site in the following:

  • private web sites
  • an educational web sites, such as those of educators or students
  • professional web sites
  • educational or professional presentations

In all cases, the author expects the site to provide a credit and link to this blog. In the animations of note, a satisfactory link is already provided by the author on the animation itself and will suffice to meet this requirement.

What is FORBIDDEN and will be prosecuted is the inclusion of the illustrations, figures, text, or animations of this site in commercial or private collections of pictures or animations for sale.

It is also forbidden to copy the text or blocks of text (more than a paragraph or caption), with or without the illustrations, figures, or animations, for use in other websites or published or distributed documents, including both hardcopy documents and computer documents and files, without the authors written permission.

Copying this blog for purely personal use is allowed. This does not include putting the text or more than 5 animations up for public viewing or distributation.

The animations in this posting can be downloaded free from George Mason University Archival Repository.



Instructions for putting a flash animation in your web page

To add a flash animation to your html web page, first substitute the correct height, width, and URL for the animation into the code below. Then insert that code into the code of your web page. The URL should indicate the location and name of the animation, i.e. where you store it and its file name. The heights and widths of the animations are listed below. Note that the heights, widths, and URL's all need to be entered twice in the code below. 

<object height="310" width="441">
<param name="movie" value="http://folderName/animationName.swf">
<embed src="http://folderName/animationName.swf" height="310" width="441">
</embed></object>


Animation titleheight
(in pixels) 		width
Plotting the sine function340664
AC voltage 206353
Animation of the basic phasor rotor351402
Animation showing phasor, graph, and bungy jumper389669
Addition of phasors with bungy jumpers389791
Beating of two oscillations389804
Beating tones173711
Complex rotor, ball goddess617259
Complex exponential function, a show stopper317402
Complex phasors, da Vinci309800
Complex multiplication of a phasor, beaches309800
Gaussian solitary wave, skate board217454
Shifted gaussian, leprechaun 217345
Traveling Wave, car hop241454
General traveling wave310441
Complex phasor representation of a traveling wave659696
Traveling wave as a complex helical wave650700
Traveling wave by a monkey138301
Traveling 2D wave on a mesh215360
Oblique traveling mesh wave215360
Circular traveling wave215360
Electromagnetic traveling wave390641
Longitudinal pressure wave233847
Spark gap transmitter342400

© P. Ceperley 2007

Posted by P. Ceperley at 12:25 PM