Small Forces, Big Motion: How Resonance Breaks Things

Push a swing at the right moment and a small push builds a big motion. Every structure has frequencies where the same thing happens, and a machine running at one of them can shake itself apart.

The video shows natural frequency, what damping does, the resonance peak, and why engineers either move the frequency or add damping, with a washing machine and a bridge as the examples.

In this video

• Natural frequency of a mass on a spring
• What damping changes
• The resonance peak and why it's dangerous
• Detuning and damping in real machines