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Re: Waves

----- Original Message -----
From: "Leigh Palmer" <palmer@SFU.CA>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2000 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: Waves

I once almost got into trouble doing this in the Statue of Liberty while
standing
in line. Did you know that the Statue is a fairly high-Q structure? It
hangs by
some highly elastic cables from a base structure, and it can be set into
vertical
oscillation by periodically pushing sideways on any one of them with the
proper
frequency and phase. It was very easy to get an amplitude of a couple of
millimeters, but my wife made me stop when other people on the stairs
began to
notice the motion.

Leigh,

I read recently that the FBI thinks many famous American landmarks are too
vulnerable to terrorist attack. This is the first I've heard of a foreign
(Canadian) terrorist trying to topple our favorite gift from France.

Paul O. Johnson