Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Scientist: Tae Bo workout sent skyscraper shaking

I don't know that it has anything to do with resonance frequency, but the imaginary engineer in my mind would like to think that this is the case. From a source article at CNN:

Seventeen people performing a vigorous Tae Bo workout caused tremors that forced the evacuation of a South Korean skyscraper earlier this month, the building's owners say.
Prime Group, owner of the 39-story TechnoMart commercial-residential high-rise in Seoul, said 17 middle-aged people were working out to the pop song "The Power" by Snap on July 5 when their movements set the upper floors of the tower shaking for 10 minutes, according to a report from the Korea JoongAng Daily.
Scientists recreated the event in the 12th floor gym, according to a report in the Korea Times.
“We observed the vibrometer while performing the same kind of aerobic exercise that was performed at the time of the shaking which occurred on July 5. We noticed that the shaking was felt in the upper floors while the exercise was being performed while no other place showed signs of tremor,” Chung Lan, a professor of architectural engineering at Dankook University, told the Korea Times. 
“It just happens to be that the vibration cycle caused by Tae Bo collided with the vertical vibration cycle unique to the building,” Chung told the Korea Times. The action amplified the building's vibration and caused the shaking, he said. 
Chung was one of six professors from the Architectural Institute of Korea who inspected the building and recreated the Tae Bo exercise.

So, essentially they were a large, nerdy, Korean earthquake machine. They'd make Tesla proud. If there is a better reason to go back to school for an engineering degree, I don't know what it is.

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