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Physics of musical instruments Essay

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Physics is all around us, and yet we always overlook it. We see, hear or feel something happen but never stop to question why. Physics will tell us why. Music plays a part in everyone's lives. So much so that it is often overlooked and the technicalities of it are unappreciated. Sure there are times when we listen carefully to the music behind the songs we hear, we may focus on the rhythm or the harmonies, but we never think of what it took to make the sounds that we are hearing. In this paper, I will explain the physics musical instruments. I will describe and define sound in psychics terms and then describe how different instruments create their unique sounds. There are so many different kinds of music, and thanks to the variety of …show more content…

As the amplitude grows so does the energy. However amplitude is not directly proportional to energy, rather a multiple by the square roots. For example, a wave with amplitude twice as large actually has four times more energy and one with amplitude three times larger actually has nine times more energy. The loudness of sound is related to the amplitude of the sound wave (Lapp, 2003). The number of waves that pass a certain point per second is called the frequency of the waves. In music, the notes on a musical scale are the way that we can record and read different frequencies. Lower frequencies will let off low pitches while higher frequencies will give off high pitches. We measure frequency in Hertz. 1 Hertz is one wave per second. Similarly, a period is the time it takes for a wave length to pass a point and will be the reciprocal of the related frequency. For example, if five waves passed a point in one second the equation would be f = 3 Hz (or frequency equals three Hertz). The period is the time it takes for one of those waves to pass the point, or the reciprocal of the frequency which would be 1/5 of a second. Speed is the ratio of distance to time. In music terms, speed equals wavelength over time, or speed equals wavelength multiplied by frequency (Lapp, 2003). Musical instruments make sounds by vibrating, and do so when they are at their natural frequency. They

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