Resonance Tuning Forks (2D)

Tuning Fork A

Frequency A 3.00 Hz

Tuning Fork B

Frequency B 3.00 Hz

Strike fork A to begin.

Live Readout

Beat frequency |A−B|

0.00 Hz

Fork B response

How it works

Striking fork A sets it ringing at its own natural frequency, a lightly damped oscillation that slowly dies out. That vibration weakly couples to fork B through the air and the shared base — exactly like two forks standing on the same tabletop, or two guitar strings tuned to the same note.

Fork B is a driven damped oscillator: it feels a tiny periodic push from fork A at fork A's frequency. When fork B's own natural frequency is close to the driving frequency, that push lands in step with fork B's own swing on every cycle and the amplitude builds — resonance. Move the sliders apart and the push falls out of step almost as often as it reinforces, so energy pumped in gets cancelled out and B barely stirs.

The frequency difference between the two forks is exactly the beat frequency you would hear if both rang together — the same physics a piano tuner uses to bring two strings into tune by listening for the beats to slow down and vanish.