Resonance Resonance In mechanical systems, resonance is a phenomenon that occurs when the frequency at which a force is periodically applied is equal or nearly equal to one of the natural frequencies of the system on which it acts. This causes the system to oscillate with larger amplitude than when the force is applied at other frequencies. Frequencies at which the response amplitude is a relative maximum are known as resonant frequencies or resonance frequencies of the system. Near resonant frequencies, small periodic forces have the ability to produce large amplitude oscillations, due to the storage of vibrational energy. In other
What Is it Like to Be a Bat? What Is it Like to Be a Bat? "What is it like to be a bat?" is a paper by American philosopher Thomas Nagel, first published in "The Philosophical Review" in October 1974, and later in Nagel's "Mortal Questions" (1979). In it, Nagel argues that materialist theories of mind omit the essential component of consciousness, namely that there is something that it is (or feels) like to be a particular, conscious thing. He argues that an organism has conscious mental states, "if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism—something it is like "for"