Pozicaj Blog

In the 19th century the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz showed that when a violin string is bowed, it vibrates in a way that is completely different from the sinusoidal standing waves that are familiar to all physicists. Although the string vibrates back and forth parallel to the bowing direction, Helmholtz showed that other transverse vibrations of the string could also be excited, made up of straight-line sections. These are separated by “kinks” that travel back and forth along the string and are reflected at the ends. The kinks move with the normal transverse-wave velocity, c = (T/m)1/2, where T is the tension and m the mass per unit length of the string. The bowing action excites a Helmholtz mode with a single kink separating two straight sections.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 8:02 am and is filed under Arts.