Finally, the vibrations of a string depend upon the density of the matter of which it is composed. A platinum wire and an iron wire, for example, of the same length and thickness, stretched by the same weight, will not vibrate with the same rapidity. For, while the specific gravity of iron, or in other words its density, is 7·8, that of platinum is 21·5. All other conditions remaining the same, the number of vibrations is inversely proportional to the square root of the density of the string. If the density of one string, therefore, be one-fourth that of another of the same length, thickness, and tension, it will execute its vibrations twice as rapidly; if its density be one-ninth that of the other, it will vibrate with three times the rapidity, and so on. The last two laws, taken together, may be expressed thus: The number of vibrations is inversely proportional to the square root of the weight of the string.
In the violin and other stringed instruments we avail ourselves of thickness instead of length to obtain the deeper tones. In the piano we not only augment the thickness of the wires intended to produce the bass notes, but we load them by coiling round them an extraneous substance. They resemble horses heavily jockeyed, and move more slowly on account of the greater weight imposed upon the force of tension.
§ 3. Mechanical Illustrations of Vibrations. Progressive and Stationary Waves. Ventral Segments and Nodes
These, then, are the four laws which regulate the transverse vibrations of strings. We now turn to certain allied phenomena, which, though they involve mechanical
Fig. 35. considerations of a rather complicated kind, may be completely mastered by an average
Fig. 36. amount of attention. And they must be mastered if we would thoroughly comprehend the philosophy of stringed instruments.
From the ceiling c, Fig. 35, of this room hangs an India-rubber tube twenty-eight feet long. The tube is filled with sand to render its motions slow and more easily followed by the eye. I take hold of its free end a, stretch the tube a little, and by properly timing my impulses cause it to swing to and fro as a whole, as shown in the figure. It has its definite period of vibration dependent on its length, weight, thickness, and tension, and my impulses must synchronize with that period.