Mission SM6: Harmonics for String Instruments

Mission SM6 focuses on the analysis of stringed instruments. You will need to identify the harmonic number for a given standing wave pattern, relate the frequency of one harmonic to another harmonic, and be comfortable with the relationship between string length and wavelength. The mission consists of 40 questions organized into 9 Question Groups. You must answer one question from each Question Group to complete the mission. The learning outcomes for this mission are ...
 

Learning Outcomes

• The student should be able to identify the standing wave patterns for stringed instruments and use them to state the length-wavelength relationships.
• The student should be able to recognize the relationship between the frequencies of the various harmonics for stringed instruments.

 

Launch Mission SM6

 

Getting Help

If you are not familiar with this topic, then you should first learn about the topic using our written Tutorial or our Video Tutorial:
 

The Physics Classroom, Sound and Music Unit, Lesson 5, Part b

• What is a standing wave pattern?
• What is a nodal position on a standing wave pattern?
• How far apart are the nodal positions on a standing wave pattern?
• How can one match the harmonic number to a given standing wave pattern?
• How can the wavelength of a standing wave in a guitar string be related to the length of the string?
• How can the frequency of a harmonic be predicted from the knowledge of the frequency of one of the other harmonic patterns?

 

Video Tutorials:

None available at this time.

 

 

Question-Specific Help

Each Question Group has its own Help page with information specific to the question. You can access the Help page from within the mission by tapping on the Help Me! icon (textbook). For your convenience, links to those pages are provided below: