PHYSICS 1100/1101

News

The Sample exams are in POWERPOINT FORMAT. I am pretty sure you won't be able to open the documents if you don't have Powerpoint. For each question there is an answer given in a step by step format.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge:

I have place a clip of this bridge collapsing. Here is a little blurb on what happened. In 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge began undulating wildly and eventually self destructed in a 40 mph wind, even though the structure was designed to withstand winds of up to 120 mph. The failure came as a severe shock to the engineering community. Why did a great span, more than half a mile in length and weighing tens of thousands of tons, spring to life in a relatively light wind? And how did slow, steady, and comparatively harmless motions suddenly become transformed into a catastrophic force? To answer these questions engineers began applying the science of aerodynamics to bridge designs. Technical experts still disagree on the exact cause of the bridge's destruction, but most agree the collapse had something to do with a complex phenomenon called resonance: the same force that can cause a soprano's voice to shatter a glass. Today, wind tunnel testing of bridge designs is mandatory. As for the Tacoma Narrows bridge, reconstruction began in 1949. The new bridge is wider, has deep stiffening trusses under the roadway and even sports a slender gap down the middle -- all to dampen the effect of the wind(pbs.org-website)

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