If you place a wineglass before a speaker emitting waves at the vessel’s resonant frequency, it will vibrate, or even shatter. But resonant frequencies aren’t unique to stemware; every object has one (or, more often, several). Even googly eyes.
The googly eyes in this video by Rob Cruickshank, for example, have a resonant frequency of about 433 Hz. When this frequency is reached, the eyes—and this is the scientific terminology—go all googly. Presumably, increasing the amplitude would cause these eyes to google to the point of obliteration. Cruickshank, mercifully, spares the googly eyes this grisly end.
[Rob Cruickshank via The Atlantic]
Contact the author at [email protected] and @rtg0nzalez.
