Why does an orchestra tune to the oboe? Would it be possible to build a Stradivarius-quality violin out of plastic? Is rock music really hazardous to your health? If you have ever wondered about questions like this, you might enjoy Physics 3, The Physics of Music, a course in musical acoustics intended for non-science majors. After about a month of introductory material on Newton's Laws of Motion, oscillation, and waves, it deals primarily with acoustic musical instruments and the ways in which the physical nature of sound and its perception influence the construction of musical instruments and the composition and performance of music. Since I am a fairly decent amateur oboist, playing in both the College orchestra and concert band, I am most familiar with Western classical music. The math expectations are modest -- I assume a hazy recall of first-year high-school algebra -- and prior experience in music is not necessary although it's useful. The course now satisfies Area 4 ("Physical and Biological Sciences"), mostly through the lab.


 

Cool and Useful Physlets: Warning: None of these physlets work on a Mac and a few will actually crash your computer!

Interference!
Can add multiple sources at different positions and define the wavelength of the wave the sources emit and then watch the interference patterns. Illustrates the concept nicely and looks cool!

the Doppler Effect
Can change the velocity of a traveling wave source and see how the waves bunch up or are left behind. Also available is a version that shows what Mach 0.5, 0.9, 1.0, 1.2, and 2.0 are, here.

Superposition
Here's a nifty physlet that illustrates superposition! Enter two different periodic functions and they are each illustrated in their own window, one on top of the other. Then below them is the sum of the two functions. Might help on the Fourier stuff. Animated.

Damped Simple Harmonic Oscillator
Illustrates overdamped, underdamped, and critically damped SHO nicely.

Useful Links:

the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA)
Can use browse icons for either current or past then flip through the Table of Contents and pull up abstracts. The issues up to Volume 102 (1997) are on the 3rd floor of HMC's Sprague Library. (see blais listing)

Also, you can search the physics and music databases from the Claremont College Libraries' homepage by keywords to pull up articles specifically of interest to you.


Australian National University Course Notes
Nothing too in depth, but good source of quick information on Intensity, Spectra, Tuning & Scales & Temperament, Physiology of Hearing, and the Psychophysics of Hearing.

Michigan Technological University's Physics of Music - Notes
From a similar course at another university. Includes instructions on making your own flutes, fifes, and wind chimes (includeing how to make them sound the desired notes) from PVC or metal tubing (for the chimes). Also has discussions of Just vs Equal Temperament (Equal Temperament appears in a box on page 121 and at the bottom of page 123 among other places in your text) and Conical vs Cylindrical Bores in wind instruments (conical and cylindrical bores are mentioned in section 13.2 of the text), a table of frequencies in the Equal Tempered Scale, and a discussion on the clarinet complete with waveforms, graphs of the harmonics, and even an equation to simulate clarinet sound!

Millikin University's The Physics of Music Course- LINKS-A-PLENTY!!!
Has various links for info on: General Info, Math, Stringed Instruments, Wind Instruments, Percussion Instruments, Electronic Instruments, Room Acoustics, Textbooks, Journals and Societies, and Similar Courses at other universities. The only drawback to this site? The Quicktime background music.

"How sound is created by an acoustic guitar and the complete process involved in the listeners appreciation of that sound."
Lots of information on each step of this process. Even has wav files of how string tension and mass (ie thickness) affects pitch. Lots of audio and visual (i.e. graphical) aids.

The Physics of the Didjeridu
Includes wav and aiff files of a didjeridu! Schweet!

Duke University's Physics 36 Links
"Math Details on Selected Topics." This is probably more mathematically in depth than Physics 3 requires. Includes SHO, the Wave Equation and a mathematical calculation of the spectrum of electrical guitar tones.