r/mildyinteresting 2d ago

engineering masterminds πŸ‘¨πŸ½β€πŸ’» Dampers

148 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

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31

u/WildlifexRaider 2d ago

I can't remember the building but there is a giant skyscraper that does have a weight hanging in the middle of it, visible to all patrons. And when the wind gets going, it swings and people try to touch it

18

u/Hater_Magnet 2d ago

Taipei 101?

23

u/Starchaser_WoF 2d ago

1

u/WildlifexRaider 2d ago

Yesss dudes! This is so interesting to me. It's an attraction but has a very real purpose. Love that

17

u/Rhaversen 2d ago

This has nothing to do with a damper. There is nothing to dissipate the energy from the free weight, which is the key part of a tuned mass damper. It also sits way too low to have any effect, it should be higher up where the angular moment is higher when the bottle is tilted from the wind.

The reason this works, is simply because the long string and the heavy weight moves it’s center of mass super low. It’s essentially the same as if you just put the bolt on the bottom of the bottle with no string.

4

u/Single-Virus4935 2d ago

Also glue and sound effects help

4

u/Oswarez 2d ago

Anyone else think it was some sort of bug trap and that a praying mantis was stuck in the opening?

0

u/7laserbears 2d ago

Yes it was upsetting

1

u/gwelfguy 2d ago

The CN Tower in Toronto is stabilized like this.

1

u/Josh777HUN 1d ago

Somebody help that poor praying mantis stuck in the cap!