by Balin » Mon Nov 09, 2020 6:06 pm
Ok so my understanding so far: some design decision had to be made in multiple instances; a coin was flipped to introduce randomness into the decisions and reduce unwanted regularity, and this made the building less susceptible to wind damage. Correct
Hmm maybe "resonant vibrations" was the wrong term... how about "natural frequencies"? The irregularity helped prevent the building from wobbling in the wind because different parts of it would tend to wobble at different frequencies? That's about it, Yes. (Though "resonant vibrations" was the right term after all - I wasn't thinking of it in terms of the wind. My bad.)
Do we need to find out what the decision was? Did it involve reinforcing parts of the building? Adding some external structures to break up the wind? This Leaving some gaps for it to flow through?
****SPOILER****
During the construction of a tall, thin tower, engineers discovered that the building was susceptible to wind damage; if the wind matched the building's resonant frequency, the building could be blown apart. So they attached external baffles to the outside of the building to break up the wind, but the baffles needed to be put on randomly so as to break up the wind enough. To decide which sections of the building would have baffles or not, they flipped a coin.
(This also comes from Matt Parker's Humble Pi, which WiZ mentioned in one of his puzzles. I wondered if he'd spotted this story as well.)
Nicely done.