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Name: Gina
Status: student
Age: 18
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999
Question:
I would like to know what exactly causes glass to shatter when a singer shatters glass with their voice. Why must a certain pitch be sung? And why does the pitch have to be held for a few seconds?

Replies:
When the pitch (frequency) of the voice matches the natural frequency of the glass, such large amplitude waves build up in the glass that it shatters. This phenomenon is called resonance. It is what made the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse.

---Nathan A. Unterman


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