In this video, Dr. Robert Butler from the University of Portland, Oregon, explains how to construct a BOSS model of building resonance that helps to inform why buildings fall in earthquakes. Dr. Butler explains that all structures have a natural frequency and that different frequencies affect buildings of different heights. In this particular video the frequency oscillations discussed are horizontal oscillations that are perpendicular to the height of the building itself.

First he shows the materials needed to construct the BOSS model and how to assemble it. He then demonstrates how the different frequencies affect the different buildings: taller structures respond to low frequency oscillations, medium-height structures respond to medium-frequency oscillations, and shorter structures respond to high frequency oscillations.

I have taught a unit on the construction of a building in a region prone to earthquakes of a particular frequency range. Students have to construct a model building that fits several criteria, including having a natural resonant frequency outside of the range common to that region. One of the concepts students find difficult at first is that different frequencies affect structures of diverse heights differently. This video is excellent for demonstrating the effects.

In this video, Abelardo Morell discusses using the camera obscura to give a different perspective of the world just outside your window. He has used this technique with amazing aesthetically pleasing results that result in stunning photographs. He also discusses how he progressed from trying it in one room of his house, then other rooms of his house, and even in New York City's Times Square.

Becoming familiar with this concept and the effects it creates is one way to create more interesting physics lessons. The process can be replicated in a classroom to show students the effects. I teach a unit on optics in my physics class (as part of our curriculum) and adding this as a component can help students understand the way certain optics concepts work. It can even help students understand how our eyes and the lenses in our eyes work when we look at something.

During the unit, we then build a camera obscura using a shoe box that the students then use to capture an image on film, which they later develop. They have to calculate the correct focal lengths and exposure times so that they successfully capture an image. This application to real life helps make their learning more meaningful. This video can help to make those connections and understand those concepts, while showing them some visually stunning camera obscura images.