Physics For Our Bass

Our bass consists of three functional parts: the string, the body, and the base. To
produce sound we pluck the string while applying pressure on the base. By using
different amounts of force on the base we can alter the tension of the string therefore
changing the note. The reason sound emanates from the instrument is because the
string is vibrating through the air. As it vibrates, sound waves are created that have a
wavelength of roughly two times the length of the string because the string creates half
of a standing wave at a time. We can change the length of the vibrating string by
holding it against the neck. This lets us have a full scale of notes with only one string.
The string itself is small so it does not produce a very loud sound. To amplify the notes,
we created a metal body that vibrates as the soundwaves from the string hit it. This
causes the metal to vibrate, greatly increasing the volume of our instrument.
The length of the string affects the pitch, or note, of our instrument. Our task is to
create a musical instrument that is capable of playing a full scale and describe the
physics behind it. Our bass was designed with one string to make it easier and less
complicated to find and play the notes in the scale. To find the starting note we needed
to infer how long the string needed to be. We tested various lengths of strings and
researched how long it needed to be to play a note specifically in the second octave.
We saw in our research that to play a lower note such as an A2 seen below, it
must produce a wavelength of 314 Hz, making a very
low note. To achieve this pitch we used a 162 cm long
string. The string produces half of a standing wave
with each vibration so the string had to be half of the
wavelength of the pitch we wanted to make with the
bass. Cutting down the string or simply stopping the
vibration at certain points on the string changes the
length, creating higher notes as you move your finger
down. The low notes vibrate slower because the
string is longer, creating a larger wavelength and a
lower note. Similarly, a shorter string vibrates faster,
producing a smaller wavelength and a higher pitch.
Using this knowledge we were then able to mark the lengths that we needed to hold the
string at to make each note in our scale. The lowest note was A, made by letting the
string ring open. The highest note was A, made by cutting the string in half. Through
this data we proved that the length of the string changes the tone of the note. We saw in
our testing that the larger the wavelength became, the lower the note became and the
shorter the wavelength became, the higher the note became accordingly.

Note

Wavelength

String Length

314 Hz

177

Bb

296 Hz

163

264 Hz

153

234 Hz

144

Eb

222 Hz

134

198 Hz

123

176 Hz

110

157 Hz

94

Physics For Our Chimes

Our chimes consist of a row of metal pipes cut to varying lengths. When hit, each
one makes a different note on the C phrygian scale from D to D . They are held up by
string and rubber bands stretching across the frame to suspend them in midair. This let
the pipes resonate as opposed to sounding harsh and staccato if they had been resting
on a hard surface. That is because the sound is produced by the vibration of the metal.
To create the right note, we first figured out the natural frequency, or resonance of the
pipe we were using. Then we applied the chime ratio to find each other note
The length of the chime directly affects the note produced. We started
out by cutting a pipe at 30 cm and finding what note it resonated at. From
this point we multiplied or divided by the ratios in the table below. These
ratios are all based off of the fact that a chime 2 shorter makes a note
exactly one octave higher. As we found, longer chimes create lower pitches

while shorter chimes create higher pitches. This is because the air in the
longer chimes has to travel further before escaping the tube. Also explaining
why hitting chimes at different points give different notes but hitting in the
middle gives the correct note. Once we identified the starting note we simply
multiplied by the correct numbers in
the table below to create our scale.
Notes

Pipe Lengths (cm)

30

29

27.5

26

25

23.5

22.5

21

Physics For Our Trumpcorder

Our trumpcorder produces sound from the vibration of the players lips on the
mouth piece. The vibrations then travel through the body of the trumpet, a tube. Those
vibrations then leave the instrument through the bell. The bell serves to amplify the
sound waves traveling out of the instrument. We can change the pitch in two different
ways. The first is by changing the shape of the musicians mouth and tightness of the
lips. The second is by covering different holes along the instrument's body. By letting out
air through these holes the notes either goes up or down.
In our instrument, the more holes we plug, the higher the note becomes. In order
to play all the notes of the scale on the trumpcorder correctly we had to drill holes at
specific positions. We had a test model that we used to find the scale, because the
standard method of finding the positions of the holes did not work for our instrument.
Normally you could simply divide by of the wavelength, but this did not apply to the
instrument we made. The frequency of the note being played was not on the scale we
were trying to make. Through our tests we found where we wanted the fingerings to be
to play the notes. It plays the a C major scale starting at C and goes up to a C

We noticed this fact when we were testing holes on our practice model. We
heard that the more holes we plugged in the higher pitch the note was. This was given
that the same lip position was used for every hole. Also, in our table we saw the
wavelength of each wave got smaller for the more holes we plugged in. In the table, the
notes we played that were higher are the ones that filled the most hole positions.
The evidence shows that the more holes you fill on the trumpet with the same lip
tightness the higher the note will become. We found multiple times in our research and
saw in the table we made how the wavelengths changed. We noticed that the more
holes we plugged the shorter distance the air had to travel creating a higher frequency,
or higher pitch note.
Finding and understanding the physics of this instrument was tricky. We saw that
there was so many factors to why it creates the notes it does. The first factor is tube
length and thickness. This factor plays a key role in what octave you want your
instrument to play. We chose a 66cm pipe which plays a C and a relatively thin tube. If
we had chose a different length pipe we would have been in a completely different
octave altogether. The second factor was hole placement. In order for us to play the six
notes in the scale that needed to have fingerings, we needed to figure out where the
holes needed to be. For our instrument to find the holes, we did not use a formula,
because that did not correspond with our design. Instead we chose to have a practice
trumpet which we used to find the correct scale and notes. We originally knew that the
holes changed how the air traveled, causing a change in wavelength. Having not
precise calculations for the placement of the holes affected how we found what each
note frequency was, and ultimately what note it plays. This made the tuning process
infinitely harder. The third factor is the emberture. The emberture of the player changes
how the trumpcorder plays, therefore making the physics very complicated. The
wavelength can change depending on how your lips are placed. There are many
different lip positions that can play the same note octaves and octaves higher. The more
your lips vibrate and the tighter they are, changes the frequency of the note, creating
either higher or lower notes.