Sympathetic vibration and the music shack
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (368514)
Rockingham, Australia
February 17, 2024 5:52pm CST
Here is a definition of sympathetic vibration or sympathetic resonance. Sympathetic resonance or sympathetic vibration is a harmonic phenomenon wherein a passive string or vibratory body responds to external vibrations to which it has a harmonic likeness. This might sound a bit odd but definitions have a habit of doing that.
Examples of this phenomenon are when an opera singer can cause a wine glass to break by singing at a particular pitch. When we drove over a particularly rough road, all the lids on jars in the caravan fridge unscrewed themselves – another example of sympathetic vibration.
Sympathetic vibration came up in conversation recently and I was reminded of when we built a three-sided shed to serve as our Music Shack. The sides were removable but when we got our son to play his double bass in the shed to test the acoustics, the walls started to vibrate and rattle on the very low notes. We fixed this by jamming gumnuts between the corrugations of the iron on the walls to stop the rattle.
Photo of the Music Shack under construction with Hercules overseeing the process. I think he was badly in need of a haircut at this point.
20 people like this
21 responses
@ptrikha_2 (48976)
• India
19 Feb 24
Quite an interesting concept.
You have provided a good description.
Hercules looks like a good supervisor!!
How much do you pay him for this job?
May be he likes his current hairstyle?
Building the Music Shack would be a big task !!
How much do you pay him for this job?
May be he likes his current hairstyle?
Building the Music Shack would be a big task !!1 person likes this
@ptrikha_2 (48976)
• India
20 Feb 24
@JudyEv
The Kangaroo must be designated the Construction Clearance Officer !
Vince can come to India and open an Academy for such skilled works.
He could get a good earning !
Plus Australian weather is similar to Indian weather in many ways.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (368514)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Feb 24
We did almost all the work on the music shack ourselves. We bought all the tubing for the framework and Vince welded the fames together before we cut and secured the iron onto the frames. Some friends helped us with the cement floor. Even the kangaroos checked it out.
1 person likes this
RIP Herc.
@GardenGerty (167105)
• United States
18 Feb 24
I think many of us have seen this happen and never had a name for it.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (368514)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Feb 24
There are lots of examples really but sometimes it's hard to think of them.
@ptrikha_2 (48976)
• India
19 Feb 24
What happened during that Caravan Fridge incident?
Did you detected it fast enough during the drive?
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (368514)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Feb 24
We were on a very, very bumpy road and in the end we unhitched the caravan in a small clearing and went on without it. But when we checked in the fridge, the jars in the door of the fridge had all lost their lids. We had a small bottle of capers in there and the capers had bounced out everywhere.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (81544)
• United States
18 Feb 24
That definition shattered glass and my head. 
Hercules looks like he could donate enough wool to clothe a couple of small countries!
Hercules looks like he could donate enough wool to clothe a couple of small countries!1 person likes this
@TheHorse (233458)
• Walnut Creek, California
18 Feb 24
Sympathetic vibration can also be frequency-dependent. If I play a high E note on my B string (fifth fret), and then mute it entirely, the high E-string next to it is vibrating away, making its own E note. But the G-string on the other side is not vibrating as much.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (368514)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Feb 24
Something similar I guess on a piano. You can gently push and hold a piano key down so it doesn't make any noise then, if you give the note an octave higher a sharp rap you can here the strings ringing 'in sympathy'.
@LindaOHio (209900)
• United States
18 Feb 24
Interesting article with a very cute picture, especially of Hercules. Awwww Have a good day.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (368514)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Feb 24
I just heard that! That's incredible. I worked on a station 60 miles north of there once but only for a short period - September to December so I missed out on the worst of the heat.
@Beestring (15377)
• Hong Kong
18 Feb 24
That's a very cute picture of Hercules.
Interesting information about sympathetic vibration.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (368514)
• Rockingham, Australia
18 Feb 24
I suppose we have but I'm proud that we did such a lot ourselves and didn't pay others to do stuff for us. We did hire this scaffolding as we were putting up new beams to hold some lights and it would have been just too dangerous using ladders.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (92507)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
18 Feb 24
I love that photo, Hercules was such a handsome sheep, Interesting about the vibrations,
1 person likes this
