Resonance Lab KICP（磁共振实验室KICP）.pdfVIP

Resonance Lab This lab is intended to help you understand: 1) that many systems have natural frequencies or resonant frequencies 2) that by changing the system one can change its natural frequency 3) that systems oscillate the most when driven at this natural frequency 4) that this is true for mechanical and electrical systems and is how radios are tuned Introduction: What does it mean when someone says, “That idea resonates with me.”? In the natural world many things have a preferred rates at which they will oscillate or a “resonant frequency”. Some natural fundamental frequencies are very obvious, for example that of a tuning fork. This is not surprising as tuning forks are designed to vibrate or oscillate at a particular frequency so as to produce a specific note (e.g. 440Hz). Swing sets also have a natural rhythm. If you want to make the swing go high you need to match the rate at which the swing tends to move back and forth. Other natural frequencies may be less apparent such as that of a building, which determines if it will or will not fall down during an earthquake, or the rate at which an electron moves from one orbital in an atom to another. In the laboratory there are many ways that we take advantage of natural frequencies of objects. These rhythms can tell us about the physical characteristics of an object. More importantly for astronomy, they are the only way that we can probe distant objects that we can never hope to visit. For example on earth we can detect radio signals from pulsars, which are rapidly rotating neutron stars many light years away; and even radio waves that are from the infancy of the universe, billions of years ago. This ancient light is called the cosmic microwave background and many scientists at the Center for Cosmological Physics are currently studying it to learn about the early universe. We can detect r