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Eigenfrequencies... Huh?


Daklu

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So I finally got a day off yesterday and for some odd reason started skimming through my copy of Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae [Zwillinger]. I'll be the first to admit that I'm no mathematician. I usually don't have the patience (or interest) to sort through all the formalized symbolism so there is a lot of stuff in there I don't understand. But when I ran across this bit of explanation about eigenfrequencies the only thought I could muster was, "uh.... what?"

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Not sure I'll be able to make that clear, but when you hit a drum, a bell (or any object actually), it emits a sound composed of a series of frequencies which are the eigenfrequencies. Those frequencies depends on many things like the material the object is made of or its shape. (That's why a small bell sounds differently than a large one). Now, there is no unique dependence between shape and frequency: 2 different shapes can produce the same sounds. And I guess that's waht your book tried to say by "you cannot hear the shape of a drum". (although you could hear if it is broken or not by looking at harmonics, but I won't go there).

hope that's help...

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This begs the question, can I smell the color of a fruit?

Only as well as you can taste it :D

Extended into the physical/philosophical world, the idea is the same: armed with the knowledge of only the destination, one cannot know the path of the journey. Therefore, the ends may, or may not, justify the means.

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