Why are the rings of Saturn so beautiful? The photo to the right was taken by the Cassini spacecraft when the sun was behind the planet, and backlighting the rings and the edge of the atmosphere. A type of solar eclipse never before seen by humans! The rings are composed of millions of small particles, mostly ice, orbiting Saturn….
Resonance, in general, is the tendency of a system to vibrate more strongly at some frequencies than at others. A great example of this is a playground swing. Like any pendulum, the swing “wants” to swing at a particular frequency, its resonant frequency. You can make yourself go higher and higher without a lot of…
I recently read Mickey Hart’s beautiful book, Drumming at the Edge of Magic. Hart is best known as one of the two drummers of the Grateful Dead. His book tells the story of his lifelong fascination with percussion, and of his investigations into the ancient connection between rhythm and the human spirit. Toward the end…