I.

Introduction

As a musician playing the harp, I often encounter problems with the string and find myself

having to tune it every so often. Nowadays, the weather in the city where I live, Jakarta, is

constantly changing. It can be extremely hot at noon but humid and raining at night. The strings

in the harp are very sensitive to these changes and sometimes become loose from this

immediate change in environment.

The harp is a string instrument, falling in the same family as

cello, violin and guitar. Just like the rest of the string family, the

strings in a harp can easily be untuned and therefore, change

pitch. The note a string produces usually corresponds to its

pitch, a term to describe how low or high a note played by a

musical instrument or sung seems to be (Hyper Physics, n.d.).

Following the structure of the harp, the strings that have higher

pitches are shorter in length compared to the lower notes who

have longer strings. The pitch of a note depends on the

frequency of the source of the sound. Frequency is proportional to pitch, so the higher the pitch

the higher the frequency is.

In 1600s, a French mathematician and music theorist named Marin Mersenne found the

relationship between frequency of a string and its length, weight and tension. This relationship

was established in his work Traité del l'harmonie and is now known as the Mersenne’s Law

(Claressa Ullmayer, 2014):

√
1 T
f = 2L m
L
The Mersenne’s Law, therefore, shows three relationships:

1. Frequency produced is inversely proportional to twice the length of the string,

2. Frequency is directly proportional to the tension of the string, and

3. Frequency is inversely proportional to the square root of the ratio of mass to length of

string.

When I observe the behavior of my harp strings, I noticed that as the day gets hotter, the string

would tighten and the notes would be untuned to a higher note. I assumed that as the

temperature of the surroundings increase, the string would expand and so the length increases.

From the Mersenne’s Law, we can see that as the length increases, the frequency decreases or

in other words, the note produced is lower. However, based on experience, the pitch of the

strings increase instead of decrease. This is, thus, the base of my experiment and leads me to

​
my research question: ​Is temperature a factor that limits the Mersenne’s Law? An exact

relationship between temperature and frequency produced have not been established and this

is what I want to explore by this research.

To do this, I plan to take a sample string made of brass and make a setup to keep the tension

constant. Then, I will take a hot and cold pack to vary the temperature of the string to both lower

and higher temperatures. I do this experiment in five different temperatures: 20℃, 26℃ (room

temperature), 30℃, 35℃, 40℃ and 45℃. These temperatures are chosen in a smaller range to

model realistic temperatures that the harp, or other string instruments, may encounter. Then,

the string will be plucked and, using a frequency meter, the frequency produced by the string

will be recorded.
By the end of this experiment, I want to find out if temperature is indeed the cause of the

changes in a string’s pitch and if it is, I can warn musician to keep their instruments in a room

with stable temperatures so that the strings do not become untuned often.

II. Methodologies

Variables

Independent Variable

The temperature in which the string is going to be in. This will be done in the following range of

temperatures:

20℃, 26℃, 30℃, 35℃, 40℃ and 45℃

26℃ is room temperature and used as a control.

Dependant Variable

The frequency produced by the strings at the five temperatures previously mentioned. This will

be measured in hertz (Hz) using a frequency meter.

Controlled Variable

1. The type of the string

For this experiment, I used a brass string as it is made of metal so more expansion compared to

nylon strings. To control the variable, I used one brass string for the whole experiment. This is

done, firstly, because nylon and brass have different constants for expansion and secondly,

brass strings from two different batches or factories may have different capabilities. The mass of

two different brass strings can also be different and this might cause the experiment to be
inaccurate as mass of strings can also affect the frequency produced. Therefore, one string is

used for the whole experiment to minimize systematic errors.

2. The tension of the string

The tension of the string is managed by the setup of the experiment. As I only used one string,

the strings are tied to two stands and clamps that hold the string with a constant force. The

exact value of the tension is unknown, but the setup was not changed for the whole duration of

this experiment to maintain the tension constant. A heavy wooden block is also placed between

the stands to keep the distance between the two constant and hence, constant tension.This is

done so that I can see clearly what effects temperature has on the strings. If the tension is not

kept constant, it might affect the overall value of the frequency and I cannot deduce clearly the

effect of temperature.

3. The length of the string

The string is cut to be 25 cm. As I only used one piece of string, the length is kept constant. This

value needs to be constant as difference in length can change the value of the frequency and

cause the experiment to be less accurate.

Apparatus

● 25 cm brass music string ● 1 temperature probe

● 2 stand and clamp ● 1 frequency meter and Easy Link

● 1 hot pack ● 1 Graphic Design Calculator (GDC)

● 1 ice pack ● 1 heavy wooden block

● A few metal weights

Procedure

Setup Preparation

Figure 2 above shows the setup of the apparatus. The wooden block is there to keep the

distance between the two stands constant and the weights work to prevent the clamps for

toppling over. For this experiment, I used a brass string from a harp. However, harp strings are

expensive so strings from other instruments, such as guitars or violins, as they have similar

characteristics. Before doing the experiment, make sure you have everything and set your

apparatus as what is shown in the figure above.

Experimental Procedures

1. Take a hot or cold pack and rub it in the length of the string. Make sure the heat or

coldness is distributed properly, taking a new hot pack if necessary. (Note: Use cold

pack if you are aiming for temperatures below 26℃)

2. While rubbing the pack, connect a temperature probe to one end of the string.
3. Continue rubbing until the temperature shown in the GDC shows the desired value, i.e.

30℃.

4. After the string has reached the desired temperature, pluck the string so that frequency

can be produced and read by the frequency meter.

5. Repeat steps 1-3 with the other temperatures, doing three trials for each temperature.

Figure 3: The set up in the real experiment

 III. Results and Discussion

Data Collected

Temperature Frequency (​± 0.5 ​Hz)

Average Frequency (Hz)
(± 0.1​℃​) Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3

20.0 68 64 66 66.0

26.0 72 68 74 71.3

30.0 79 77 80 78.7

35.0 83 80 87 83.3

40.0 97 90 95 94.0

Table 1: Raw and processed data table

From the table, the uncertainty of the average frequency is calculated by:
Maximum Frequency − Minimum Frequency
2

The relationship between temperature and frequency is represented in the graph below:

Figure 4: Graph of frequency versus temperature

Qualitative Analysis

Heating the brass string with a hot pack took a long time but eventually the string warmed. The

same thing was observed when cooling the string. I expected to be able to heat the string at one

end only for the heat to be passed on to the other end, since it is made of metal. However, this

observation was not seen and the hot or cold pack needed to be rubbed along the length of the

string. Also, there was no obvious expansion or contraction observed, which can be because of

the spiralling structure of the string.

Data Analysis

Based on the raw data, it can be seen that as temperature increases, the frequency increases

as well. Looking at graph 3, an increasing exponential relationship can be seen between

frequency and temperature. From the curve of best fit of the five points, it is shown that the

equation for the curve is:

f = 45.97e0.0175T

The equation of the best fit curve in graph 3 further reinforces that there is an exponential

relationship between frequency and temperature.

The R​2​ of this experiment is 0.985, which means that the values are precise because the R​2

value is very close to 1. From the graph, it can be seen that the point that is least precise is the

point (35.0, 83.3) as it lays the furthest away from the line of best fit. For error bars, the

horizontal error bars can hardly be seen, which shows that the uncertainty for temperature is

very small, staying constant at 0.1℃​ (the probe’s uncertainty).​ The vertical error bars are more

visible, showing that the values for the frequency are less accurate, but even so, the percentage

uncertainties do not exceed 5%.

 Temperature (°C) Ave. Frequency (Hz) Absolute Uncertainty (Hz) Percentage Uncertainty (%)

20 66.0 2.0 3.03

26 71.3 3.0 4.21

30 78.7 1.5 1.91

35 83.3 3.5 4.20

40 94.0 3.5 3.72

Table 2: Uncertainty table for frequency

IV. Conclusion and Evaluation

Conclusion

From the data obtained, it can be observed that as temperature increases, the frequency of

sound produced in a string also increases. A more exact description of this relationship is an

exponential relationship, which can be expressed mathematically as:

f = keαT

Where,

f = frequency (Hz) α = temperature constant

k = exponential constant = temperature (℃)

As the temperature increases, the frequency and pitch increases as well and so, velocity

increases and wavelength decreases, based on the formula:

v = fλ

Therefore, temperature indeed has an effect to the frequency of the sound produced by a string.

This shows that to keep the frequency or pitch of the string in an instrument constant, the

instrument must be placed in a room with constant temperature. The increase in frequency can

be because of expansion in the string, but this was not observed during the experiment, as the

string is in a spiral.
Evaluation

Random Error

● The first cause of the possible random error in this experiment is that the heat or

coldness is not spread equally in the string. So, if there is an expansion, it is not

expanded to its full capability and so, the frequency change is not maximized.

● The next cause of random error is heat loss to surroundings. Even though the string is

made of a metal, which is a heat conductor, there may be a lot of heat energy released

to the surroundings. This can cause a fast decrease in temperature of the string, so

when the string is plucked to check for frequency, the temperature might already fall.

Systematic Error

During this experiment, I control all the possible causes of systematic errors. I checked for zero

errors in all equipments used and replace it if there are any. After checking the frequency of

each temperature, I wait to make sure the string’s temperature is back to the room’s

temperature so if the strings can go back to its original state if it undergoes expansion or

contraction.

V. Bibliography

HyperPhysics. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2016, from

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

Ullmayer, C. (2014). Determining Pitch. Retrieved October/November, 2016, from

http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/webproj/212_spring_2014/Claressa_Ullmayer/Mersenne's Laws.html