Question regarding PWM and resonance

Skimo

Newly Enlightened
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taxachusetts
I was playing with my flashlights tonight, DEFIANT 590 lumen Armor Max and DEFIANT 1,000 lumen.

I placed my wifes Yankee Candle 'lampshades' over the lights, why, I have no idea, maybe to see what they looked like if the O content of air next to a burning wick would look like or to see what the lampshades would look like if I glued them onto the flashlights. Whatever reason, I instantly noticed what sounded like a very large mosquito, naturally I moved the lampshade to reach for my pocketknife and hack this mutant giant (probably zombie, since walking dead just finished.:faint:) mosquito into bits small enough for my hobo stove to burn (I like fire, ya know, and what better fire than a mostly soot free very warm fire perfect for cooking food.:whistle:)

Okay, enough games, I used two of my wifes lampshades, one gave a stronger humming sound (thinner glass shade) and a weaker humming sound (thicker ceramic shade), being an electronics tech by trade (and nothing to do with sound) I figured simple resonance, makes sense right, thicker and less dense material is quieter and thinner and denser material louder.... wrong, well at least partially.

I cleaned the soot off of the ceramic lampshade, what light loving human wouldn't, less soot means brighter reflection, meaning less lost light, meaning that these nasty smelling candles could serve as light (well kinda) as well as decoration (and nasty chemical smells, to my nose).

I cleaned it, I put it back over the light, do you want to know what I heard?

Nothing, not a thing, silence to my ears (years on the flightline, jets, specifically whiny jets on the Boeing 707 AWACS).

I was (and still am, thus the posting) perturbed by the now clean lampshade being quiet, so I checked the still dirty glass lampshade, noise galore! Great, I'm not hallucinating... Now my mind wonders, what is going on? Obviously this isn't a case of resonance dealing with the shape and space of these overpriced lampshades, this is now dealing with light absorbed by dirty lampshades potentially causing movement caused by the energy coming from a FLASHLIGHT:poof:... my mind is blown at this point.

I come to you, you beacons of knowledge, in this dark universe of the internet to ask you why.

Why does a dirty, close to 5" at the base and close to 2" at the top, lampshade... before I get off track, I know there are metric users here... so 12.5cm tapered to 5cm lampshade, placed over my probably PWM flashlight, cause me to hear a ringing/buzzing sound?

Is this a function of both resonance and light absorbtion, maybe something more?

I'll take a video (more for the audio portion) of this effect, I'll see if I can find an app for my phone to either synch with the sound (maybe a freq generator, possibly a video app to determine the pulse width of the light). If my crappy Iphone 4 is able to capture the sound I'll post a youtube video.

It's midnight, I have work, this is keeping me awake.... of all the questions my mind has had to deal with.... I have no idea, I have half baked hypothesis based on a loose understanding of sound.

Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope!:eek:

If anyone answers (even loosely) this by morning... a paying member I will be!lovecpf:paypal:

I know it's late, I am guessing my humor which is largely hard to get while rested, is probably not coming through text.

My simplified version.
I placed two sooty lampshades over two flashlights.
Both shades produced sound when placed in front of and on the 1,000 lumen flashlights, but only when the bottom opening was exposed to the direct beam of the flashlight.
I cleaned one of the shades, it stopped producing and sound (for my ears).
The dirty shade still produces sound.

Why?!



Further edit: Neither flashlight is producing any audible noise(to me), the only sound that I can hear is when the lampshade is in front of the beam. Also, high mode and low mode sound like different frequencies. Both frequencies sound steady.
 
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