Engineering Physics 11 min read
Open-End Air Columns
Many musical instruments consist of an air column enclosed inside of a hollow metal tube. Though the metal tube may…
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Engineering Physics 7 min read
Guitar Strings
A guitar string has a number of frequencies at which it will naturally vibrate. These natural frequencies are known as…
Engineering Physics 8 min read
Physics of Musical Instruments
Resonance The goal of Unit 11 of The Physics Classroom Tutorial is to develop an understanding of the nature, properties, behavior,…
Engineering Physics 12 min read
Fundamental Frequency and Harmonics
Previously in Lesson 4, it was mentioned that when an object is forced into resonance vibrations at one of its natural frequencies,…
Engineering Physics 6 min read
Standing Wave Patterns
As mentioned earlier, all objects have a frequency or set of frequencies with which they naturally vibrate when struck, plucked,…
Engineering Physics 7 min read
Forced Vibration
Musical instruments and other objects are set into vibration at their natural frequency when a person hits, strikes, strums, plucks or somehow…
Engineering Physics 8 min read
Resonance and Standing Waves
Natural Frequency As has been previously mentioned in this unit, a sound wave is created as a result of a vibrating object.…
Engineering Physics 5 min read
Boundary Behavior
As a sound wave travels through a medium, it will often reach the end of the medium and encounter an…
Engineering Physics 6 min read
The Doppler Effect and Shock Waves
The Doppler effect is a phenomenon observed whenever the source of waves is moving with respect to an observer. The Doppler effect can be…
Engineering Physics 13 min read
Behavior of Sound Waves
Interference and Beats Wave interference is the phenomenon that occurs when two waves meet while traveling along the same medium. The…
Engineering Physics 5 min read
The Human Ear
Understanding how humans hear is a complex subject involving the fields of physiology, psychology and acoustics. In this part of…
Engineering Physics 12 min read
The Speed of Sound
A sound wave is a pressure disturbance that travels through a medium by means of particle-to-particle interaction. As one particle becomes disturbed,…
