intro You’ve probably seen violin virtuosos all over the world making amazing classical music,

playing in orchestras, and selling out amphitheatres - but what’s the physics behind it and how is
sound produced from the violin in the first place?

how sound is produced Before we can go into the details, we first have to go over how the
sound is created in the first place. When the violinist’s bow rubs across the string, the hairs on
the bow create friction with the string and cause it to vibrate. The bridge, which is the small
wooden piece under the strings, held up by the strings’ tension, vibrates with the string and
works as a lever. The oscillation of the bridge sends the vibrations to the top and back plates of
the violin. The sound post in the middle allows the vibration to pass through both plates,
creating a chamber where the sound resonates within the hollow space between.

As the chamber vibrates, it disrupts the air particles around it, which creates zones of low and
high pressure. These zones of air particles are called compression and rarefaction. When the
top plate of the violin vibrates outward, the air particles squeeze together in a high-pressure
environment, which is called compression. When the top plate returns back to its original
position, the air particles fill the empty space left behind at a lower pressure, called rarefaction.
This is known as a longitudinal wave which consists of these alternating pressure pulses, and
where particles travel in the same direction as sound. When the waves hit the eardrum, the
eardrum vibrates with it, and the brain interprets the frequency as sound! The longitudinal wave
is one of the two waves in the violin’s mechanical wave behavior, along with the mechanical
wave which comes from the initial bowing of the player. As the bow slides perpendicular to the
string, it causes it to vibrate side to side. This is called a transverse wave, where the wave
moves perpendicular to the direction of the string. While the longitudinal wave pushes and pulls,
the transverse wave curves up and down, both present in the creation of sound in a violin.

Energy is transferred through each part of the violin. Friction of the bow and string creates
kinetic energy, which then temporarily creates potential energy by pulling the string and then
letting go, changing back to kinetic energy. This kinetic energy is passed through multiple parts
through coupling, and eventually becomes acoustic energy by resonating in the chamber
between the plates.

frequency and pitch Now, let’s understand how the placement of a player’s fingers on the
string allow it to make different notes. The violin changes pitch in two ways: fingering and tuning.
As the violinist presses down on the string with their finger, for example the A string here, it
makes a different sound than when the violinist lets go of the string—this is essentially because
the string becomes shorter when pressed, which results in a higher frequency because the
string has less area to vibrate. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz) and our brains are
programmed to associate certain frequencies with different pitches; lower pitches correspond to
lower frequencies, and vice versa. For example, the open A string is associated with 440 Hz.
However, when pressed, the wave has a higher frequency than 440 Hz, which becomes a
different, higher pitch and hence sounds different! To tune a violin, the pegs at either end of the
string are turned to loosen or tighten the string. This changes the time for the string to snap
back to its original position after being stretched, which is another factor to either increase or
decrease frequency. All in all, the main reason why different pitches are made on the violin has
to do mainly with the frequency of waves.

amplitude and loudness The violin is a very diverse instrument that can make a range of
different volumes and sounds. The major factors that affect sound in a violin are the pressure of
the bow on the string, the speed of the bow across the string, or plucking intensity when playing
pizzicato.

Things that affect volume include amplitude, energy input, and distance. While frequency is the
number of times the wave vibrates, amplitude measures the total displacement of the wave from
the equilibrium during vibration, which helps us determine volume instead of pitch. Amplitude
changes by applying more force or by increasing distance from the ear. When more force is
applied to the string, such as plucking or bowing it harder, the displacement of the wave gets
farther. In longitudinal waves, this means that the pressure of the compressions is greater and
the pressure of the rarefactions is smaller. When these high-pressure waves hit the eardrum,
the brain interprets them as a higher volume. As the source of the vibrations gets farther, the
waves’ intensity gets lower as it travels higher distances, making the waves that reach the
eardrum much lower in volume.

resonance Sadly, a violin’s string itself is not enough to create the beautiful sound heard in
orchestras. The violin relies on resonance through its anatomy in order to amplify notes!
Resonance is when an object’s vibration at natural frequency sends energy to another object,
forcing them to vibrate at the same frequency that is used to increase amplitude and volume. As
mentioned before, the vibrations from the string travel through the bridge and to the plates,
where the air and sound particles vibrate in the chamber supported by the sound post. The
shared vibrations of different parts of the violin expel that energy to the air inside the chamber,
which makes it vibrate at the same frequency. However, now the pitch has much more volume
than just the string, since the vibrations get passed through multiple mediums. The f-holes of the
violin play a large part in this because they allow the top plate to vibrate more freely and push
the sound waves out of the chamber. Violin makers craft the parts of the violin so that the
natural frequencies of the wood can adapt to the different natural frequencies of the strings,
maximizing resonance.

harmonics and overtones As you can see, me and my sister are both playing the same note, a
B flat. But why does it sound so different when it’s supposed to be the same note? This is
thanks to harmonics and overtones. Each instrument produces a different mix of overtones,
which are additional softer frequencies that occur at the same time as the main pitch. These are
also known as harmonics. For example, the violin usually produces the full spectrum of
harmonics which makes the sound brighter and more rich. The clarinet’s cylindrical shape
blocks out some of the even-numbered harmonics and produces the odd-numbered ones, which
gives it a more hollow sound than the violin. The fundamental frequency is the main note that is
played, in this case an A, while the overtones are the sub-frequencies that contribute to an
instrument’s unique tonal quality. This is known as timbre, which is basically the “quality” or
sound of an instrument and is determined by the mixture of overtones produced by a certain
instrument. The violin has a bright and clear timbre due to its wide range of overtones, and the
clarinet has a woody and deep timbre due to its odd-numbered overtones which emphasize
hollow sounds. Each instrument also has an “attack”, or the method in which the sound is
produced. On the violin, this is via the bow, and in the clarinet this is via the vibrations of the
reed. This onset of overtones is also a major characteristic of an instrument’s timbre and helps
identify the sound.

standing waves The violin utilizes standing waves in order to create a clear and level sound
when the string is bowed or plucked. Standing waves have nodes, stationary parts, and
antinodes, moving parts. When the string is played, a wave travels down the string towards the
bridge, one of the nodes, and reflects back to the other side. The certain parts in the middle that
stay still are nodes, but most of it is the combination of both waves to create stationary
movement, or the antinodes. Even though the two waves are moving through the string, the
wave is stuck between two fixed nodes (the nut and the bridge) which causes the vibrations, or
an up-and-down oscillation.

One equation that can be related to the violin is the Wave Speed (v) equation, which determines
how fast energy moves through the string after it is played. This can be defined as
v=sqrt(Tension/Linear Mass Density (mass/Length)), where an increase in tension increases
speed and an increase in Linear Mass Density decreases the speed.

Another equation that can be related to the violin is the Frequency (f), which like mentioned
before, determines the pitch of a string. The formula is f=(harmonic number*wave speed)/2L. An
increase in length decreases frequency and an increase in wave speed or harmonic number
increases frequency.