Re: [Phys-l] Glencoe physics: music

[Bernard Cleyet <bernardcleyet@redshift.com>]

"Now the funny thing is that the author was probably right about point (d).
Virtually nobody does such experiments, because _they don't care_ about
the answer.  I've never seen a musician categorize instruments as open-pipe
instruments versus one-end-closed instruments, or as cylindrical versus
conical instruments.  So really the book is foisting on us a bunch of
stuff that virtually nobody cares about, masquerading as a real-world
application.  That's doubly sad, because there are lots of interesting
legitimate physics-of-music ideas that could have been discussed ... even
at the high-school level."

My what a coincidence. [Spring mtng. NCNAAPT] 

http://homepage.mac.com/timateeps/ncnaapt/archives/spring2006/spring2006prog.html

Below:                  

Invited Speakers

   Brian Holmes of San Jose State University will give an entertaining
   talk on the physics of musical instruments. Tom Noddy, world
   renowned as “the Bubble Guy”, is coming to blow his famous “square”
   bubble. He will give a special performance Saturday. 

I've seen one intitled, ~ What's he doing with his fist in that horn.

http://www.thorpemusic.com/holmes02.html

I know of other Physicist / musicians.

Vernier features their spectrum analyzer for use w/ musical instruments. I know our local CC uses it in a lab.

bc, thinks JD exaggerates.

p.s. Lots on this in the web, e.g.:

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/harmonics.html <http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/%7Ejw/harmonics.html>

http://www.ia.csic.es/sea/sevilla02/mus04008.pdf.


This one from an early experimentalist (analyzer not available; o'scope 
and contact microphones) instrument maker is very interesting.

http://www.dallasmusic.org/schilke/Brass%20Clinic.html#Materials

bio:

http://www.dallasmusic.org/schilke/Biography%20and%20Background.html

John Denker wrote:

> Quoting from Glencoe _Physics, Principles and Problems_
>
> Chapter 15: Sound
>
> From page 318:
>  
>
> > Many musical instruments are also open-pipe resonators.  Some examples
> > are the saxophone and the flute.
> >
> > Practice Problems 
> >  9.  A bugle can be thought of as an open pipe.  If a bugle were
> >      straightened out, it would be 2.65 m long.
> >    

cut

> ==========
>
> The sheer number of errors leads to the following obvious conjectures:
>  a) The author never actually understood the theory, and was probably
>   just parroting something from some other work.
>  b) The author never did any of the experiments suggested in the text,
>   such as looking at the power spectrum put out by a clarinet.
>  c) The author never even so much as looked at a bugle or a saxophone.
>  d) The author was confident that reviewers and readers would not
>   actually know anything about the subject, and would not do any
>   experiments.
>
> Now the funny thing is that the author was probably right about point (d).
> Virtually nobody does such experiments, because _they don't care_ about
> the answer.  I've never seen a musician categorize instruments as open-pipe
> instruments versus one-end-closed instruments, or as cylindrical versus
> conical instruments.  So really the book is foisting on us a bunch of
> stuff that virtually nobody cares about, masquerading as a real-world
> application.  That's doubly sad, because there are lots of interesting
> legitimate physics-of-music ideas that could have been discussed ... even
> at the high-school level.
>
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