I've been reading about Resonators and Resonance in an attempt to formulate a storyline for my Half-Life 2 mod. While those two articles have a ton of info, I can't understand very much of it (I haven't taken any upper-level science classes, besides Biology). My question is this: Can resonance be used in mining? Would be possible to use a resonator (a very large one, of course) to break or carve rocks? If not, can you think of any other fictional high-tech mining methods?

I can see it being possible to shatter a rock using resonance, but to precisely carve one... that seems tough. But if this is merely for a HL2 mod, just make it up, say that it's doable, and make mention of some new discovery or field of research which makes it all possible. However, just for the record, I wouldn't recommend walking into a mine and making a bunch of loud noises. Might find yourself buried in thousands of tons of earth pretty quick.

As for better understanding resonance, I'm sure if you keep looking you'll find some good introductions to it. If not, check out this Myth Buster's video on shattering glass with the human voice. It does a so-so job of explaining what resonance is and how it can be used, be it a very basic description. Plus it's Myth Buster's; can't go wrong there!

Nikola Tesla's earthquake machine