1960’s Physics Professors we’re on another level

OMG I love this stuff. That video takes me back to the 1960's in Physics classes. It reminds me of the first time I saw the video showing "Galloping Gertie" - the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge that collapsed on November 7, 1940, just six months after it opened in July of that year. The video was a simple black-white short video of the actual event and it was shown using a projector. Today, the accepted scientific reason for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is aeroelastic flutter (specifically, torsional flutter), which is fundamentally different from the forced resonance taught in physics classrooms for decades.

It seems to have been a real life occurrence similar to the various things in the video @daddyjt provided. I'm sure many of you have seen the"Galloping Gertie" video. If there is only one who has not, it is a treasure.

The lecturer (Julius Sumner Miller) said towards the of the video a lesson for all to know: "Here is a line of endeavor for the Human intellect. When it attacks a problem, it must make things simple first". He added, "As Enstein said, in the beginning, things must be made as simply as possible".

It appears Leon Moisseiff the lead designer of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge did not make things as simple as possible in the beginning. Leon Moisseiff called the Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge, the first bridge that he designed as the leading engineer, the "most beautiful bridge in the world."

He was a leading suspension bridge engineer in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. He was involved in design of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge over the East River, and others.




1940 TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE COLLAPSE IN COLOR (SILENT FILM) 19474
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBa_USozxFM


Current videos with added context and history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH6GbnKzbwI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0xohjV7Avo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uewc22E1eCk&t=36s


Notes:
The second Tacoma Narrows Bridge (the replacement for Galloping Gertie, often nicknamed "Sturdy Gertie") was constructed between April 1948 and October 1950, officially opening to traffic on October 14, 1950

Watching the videos, I learned that a third similar similar bridge was constructed to improve traffic across the narrows. The parallel eastbound span—that one began construction in October 2002 and opened on July 15, 2007.


Also, the fallen bridge still remains on the river bottom and has contributed to the growth of marine life.

I reported to the Physics class that the The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (TV Series, 1967) had used the footage in an episode.
In the 1967 episode titled "The Dublegratz Affair", the plot revolves around a sci-fi super weapon called a "multiple resonance detonator". The villains use this advanced beam weapon to amplify sound waves to cause massive destruction. To explain the terrifying power of the beam weapon to the audience, the characters explicitly discuss structural resonance and show the original archival footage of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse right on screen as a demonstration.