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Establishing the link between the Length of a String and its Frequency

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You will need the following pieces of equipment:

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A sonometer

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Or any stringed instrument and a metre ruler

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A guitar tuner

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A set of tuning forks

Or access to an online tuner to find the frequency of the starting note:

http://www.seventhstring.com/tuningfork/tuningfork.html

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Musical Frequency Chart

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A table for the resultsLENGTH (CM) Musical Note FREQUENCY (Hz)

54cm A4 440

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Instructions!Step 1 – Use the tuning fork to find a starting note.

Step 2 - Make a note of the length of string in column 1

Step 3 – Record its frequency in column 3

Step 4 – Adjust the string length using the wedge to find the next note

You need as many frequencies as possible .At least 10 from a variety of different lengths

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Tutor Notes•Remember there are potentially 8 values for each note! The frequency table and online tuner will help distinguish between say A4 and A3.

•Once the tables are complete, the results can be entered into a spreadsheet to produce a reciprocal graph

•To convert the results to a straight line find the reciprocal of the length

•Results available in a separate spreadsheet