Introducing the concept of resonance to non-science majors in a musical acoustics class

Abstract

Understanding the concept of resonance is one of the most important goals for a student in a musical acoustics course to achieve. In our musical acoustics course students examine the standing wave behavior of simple one-dimensional systems such as stretched strings and pipes with open ends or one closed end. The concept is integral to the discussion of how nearly all musical instrument work, but it is also a difficult concept for many students to understand. In our class, we discuss how looking at the boundary conditions of the systems we examine in class can be applied to predict what the resonant frequencies of the system are.