March 23, 2021 by Jermaine E. Martin
Music is one of the most beautiful things on Earth. You can’t see it, you can’t taste it, you can’t touch it, but you can hear it and most importantly, you can feel it! Music is more than something to dance to, it’s energy that stimulates the mind, body, and soul. The vibrations produced by instruments and the human voice are a form of energy. When we receive that energy at the perfect tone, level, and harmony, it elevates us emotionally, mentally, and even physically. We enter a state of rhythm or what also can be referred to as “resonance” in the world of physics.
Like me, if you grew up in the 80’s, there’s a good chance that you recorded and listened to most, if not all of your music on cassette tapes. Also, there’s probably a pretty good chance that you will remember the “Is it live or is it Memorex?” TV commercial. This was the one where the sound quality of a live singing performance is compared to the sound quality of a Memorex tape recording. The clever commercial implied that the audio quality of a recording on a Memorex cassette was indistinguishable from the audio quality of a live performance. To creatively bring home the point, the commercial showed a professional singer hitting an extremely high pitch note, causing a crystal wine glass to shatter, while asking the question: “Is it live or is it Memorex?” During the cassette tape era, this was one of the most memorable and effective TV commercials ever made.
Just the idea or mere suggestion that a certain type or “quality” of sound could break glass was a brilliant marketing strategy. But could it actually happen? Could a certain type of sound actually break glass? As a kid watching that crystal glass shatter at the end of that commercial, I never really cared. All I knew for sure was that me and a whole bunch of other people around the world wanted their best stuff recorded on Memorex cassettes!
By the time I got to college, cassette tapes were pretty much a thing of the past. Making cassette playlists was eventually replaced by something more expensive, but a lot cooler -music CD’s. The days of “Is it live or is it Memorex” were long gone. Music recording technology had changed. Images of crystal wine glasses shattering on my TV screen were a distant memory. Well, that was at least until sitting through a lecture on mechanical “vibrations” in one of my college engineering classes one day. Suddenly, my memories of “Is it live or is it Memorex” were jolted!
Of course, the lecture wasn’t about Memorex cassette tapes or singers breaking wine glasses. It was about understanding and quantifying the mechanics of vibrations. For the “non-nerd” crowd, it was basically a lecture about what happens when things repeatedly shake at a particular speed (frequency) and intensity (amplitude). During the lecture, there was one interesting topic, in particular, that immediately brought back memories of the classic Memorex commercial. The topic was titled “natural frequency and resonance.”
“Natural frequency” is defined as the frequency at which an object or system would vibrate absent of any driving and damping forces.
Every object or system has a “natural frequency,” including a crystal wine glass. When that wine glass is exposed to a driving force, such as a high-pitched singing voice that has the same frequency as the wine glass, a phenomenon occurs called “resonance.” According to Wikipedia, “resonance” is defined as: “The phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of a periodically applied force is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts.”
Basically, this means that the vibration of the wine glass will continuously increase in intensity as long as it’s subjected to a sound that matches its natural frequency. The continuously increasing vibrations due to the matching frequencies, combined with the imperfections in the glass provide the ideal conditions for the wine glass to shatter. So in short, the answer to my earlier question is “yes.” It is possible for a voice singing at a particular forced frequency that is exactly the same as the natural frequency of a wine glass to break that glass. Regardless, if you are an engineer or just a normal person, the idea that every object and system on earth has a natural frequency or set of natural frequencies in which they vibrate is pretty amazing.
Years have passed since my days of studying mechanical engineering in college, but I never forgot about those basic principles of physics. Being a lot more mature now (hopefully) and appreciative of the things I learned back then, these days I often find myself trying to make sense out of a lot of things in life using principles of physics. Even aspects of life beyond the physical, such as human and societal behavior itself, I often find myself looking for answers through the lens of physics and its laws.
One of the things I’m constantly analyzing through an engineering perspective and which is also near and dear to my heart is the continuous achievement and success of the United States of America. I’m amazed that a country so relatively young, has so quickly risen to the pinnacle of human achievement. We as a nation have overcome and broken through countless barriers that have typically and historically stifled human growth and advancement. Even today, the U.S. remains a forward force, providing light and guidance to a world that often seems overwhelmed by the frailties that haunt us as humans. “But how?” I often ask myself. “How did our nation get to be in this position?” This is a question that obviously doesn’t have a simple answer, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t have a little fun trying to answer it.
As I mentioned earlier, every object and system on Earth has a natural frequency or set of natural frequencies in which it vibrates (In case you’re wondering -Yes, this includes nations!) At the time of its founding, the United States was created based on a governing system, with the goal and intention of allowing power to reside in the hands of the people, as opposed to an all knowing and all powerful government. It was an ambitious goal, considering that not everyone believed in equal human rights. Even the men who created our system, who wrote our founding documents, themselves fell short of living up to the values of the Declaration they fought and bled for to uphold. But they put us on the path. They put us on a “frequency” where they hoped freedom, individual rights and human achievement would flourish. Instead of a “forced frequency,” our founding documents would seek to protect our God given “natural frequencies” as individuals. The idea being -The more a government is in line with and respects the “natural frequencies” of those it seeks to govern, the more that government can be a “driving force” for true progress.
For the Founders, they sought out a “sweet spot.”
Let’s use this simple, but great physics example to demonstrate the point. Imagine a toy paddle ball attached to a rubber band and tying it to your finger. If you move your finger up and down slowly, you will notice that the ball will follow your finger, barely bouncing on its own. Next, try increasing the speed (frequency) at which you move your finger up and down. Eventually, at a certain speed, the ball will not only start to bounce, but continue to bounce higher and higher. This is what I like to call the sweet spot! This means that the speed (frequency) of your finger driving the ball is now equal to the natural frequency of the ball. This “sweet spot,” is called “resonance” in the world of physics and everything and every system on Earth has one.
The funny thing is, once you go beyond this sweet spot, the distance or amplitude of the ball bouncing will become smaller and smaller, until the bounces nearly disappear. The up and down movement of your finger can increase in intensity (frequency), but it will have little effect on the ball. This is due to the fact that the frequency in which we are moving our finger is no longer matching the natural frequency of the ball. In other words, we are no longer operating in the “sweet spot.” This is sort of what happens when government operates beyond its useful and productive purpose.
For the Founders, they sought out a “sweet spot.” A system of government that would have a frequency as close to the natural frequency of man as possible. One where the individual and collective potential of the nation would continue to thrive and grow. Not driven by the “all knowing, all powerful” force of government, but where Freedom would be the “driving force.”
History’s record was crystal clear to the men who founded this great nation. They knew that if left unchecked and unrestrained, the driving force of government will not only impede on man’s freedom, but eventually take it away. The natural state of man is to be free. To be able to grow, move, adapt and adjust to his or her environment and its conditions, both favorable and unfavorable. Our “natural frequency” cannot be preset or predetermined, but is usually revealed to us as we freely move through and are exposed to life.
Jermaine E. Martin is an empowerment leader, speaker and author of “American Mindset: Unstuck & Unstoppable” (Available on Amazon).