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@richkilmer
Created May 29, 2010 18:21
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I think Harp did a pretty good job of explaining it. Although it is really vortex shedding
that causes the rhythmic pressure changes. The shear forces in the air close to the open
window cause alternating vortices to emerge. You can tell this is the case because vortex
shedding resonates at the objects natural frequency and when one window is open the car
almost always makes the sound (provided it is traveling fast enough to create vortices).
However, a car with both windows open does indeed have a resonant frequency. The difference
is that it is harder to get a standing wave to propagate in the interior of a car because
of chaotic flows within the cabin and the fact that you have two windows vying to hit
the natural frequency at the same time. Most of the time the vortices will not be in
sync and will not cause a resonant frequency to be excited, or simply cancel each other
out entirely. A car with one window open will have a resonant frequency twice as high as
a car with one window open as well. Higher frequency states require more energy to excite
which also helps to explain why both windows open often does not cause the harmonic
frequency to be excited.
From here: http://www.fluther.com/56579/whats-that-weird-flutter-in-air-when-only-one-window-is/
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