week 2 Flashcards
What is anisotropy?
The difference in some property when measured in different directions (such as the stiffness of wood along and across the grain).
What is a bass bar?
The wood strip that stiffens the top plate of a violin or other string instrument and distributes the vibrations of the bridge up and down the plate.
What is the belly of a violin?
The top plate of a violin.
What is the function of the bridge in string instruments?
The wood piece that transmits string vibrations to the sound board or top plate.
What is a Chladni pattern?
A means for studying vibrational modes of a plate by making nodal lines visible with powder.
What is compensation in strings?
An extra length of string added because tension changes when a string is pressed against a fret.
What are f-holes?
The openings in the top plate of a string instrument shaped like the letter f.
What is a Helmholtz resonator?
A vibrator consisting of a volume of enclosed air with an open neck or port.
What is a humbucking pickup?
A magnetic pickup with two coils designed to minimize hum caused by stray magnetic fields.
What is mobility in mechanical admittance?
The ratio of velocity to force.
What is a nut in string instruments?
The strip of hard material that supports the strings at the head end.
What is purfling?
The thin wood strip near the edge of the top or back plate of a string instrument.
What is a saddle in a guitar?
The strip of hard material (ivory or bone) that supports the string at the bridge.
What is a sinusoidal force?
A smoothly varying force with a single frequency; the waveform is described as a sine wave.
What is a sound hole?
The round hole in the top plate of a guitar that plays an important role in determining the lower resonances of the body.
What is a sound post?
The short round stick (of spruce) connecting the top and back plates of a violin or other string instrument.
What does sul ponticello mean?
Bowing near the bridge.
What does sul tasto mean?
Bowing near the fingerboard.
What is a viol?
An early bowed string instrument usually having six strings and a fretted fingerboard.
What is a viola da gamba?
A viol played in an upright position.
What are harmonics?
A series of partials with frequencies that are simple multiples of a fundamental frequency.
What are inharmonic partials?
Overtones or partials that are not harmonics of the fundamental.
What are nodes in vibration?
Points or lines that do not move when a body vibrates in one of its modes.
What are overtones?
Upper partials or all components of a tone except the fundamental.
What is the radius of gyration?
A measure of the difficulty of rotating a body of a given mass.
What is a strike note?
The subjective tone that determines the pitch of a bell or chime.
What is tension in strings?
The force applied to the two ends of a string, or around the periphery of a membrane, that provides a restoring force during vibration.
What is vibrato?
Frequency modulation (FM) that may or may not have amplitude modulation (AM) associated with it.
What is Young’s modulus?
The ratio of stress to strain; also called modulus of elasticity.
What is a torsional mode?
An oscillatory motion that involves twisting of the vibrating member.
