Piano string‐hammer interaction

Abstract

Only in textbooks does a hammer deliver a delta‐function impulse to a string. A real hammer generally remains in contact with the string until one or more reflections from the string ends return to kick it free. The spectrum of the string vibration that finally results depends on the relative mass of hammer and string as well as on the striking point. Some results for the idealized case of a point mass hammer will be presented. The problem of generalizing the theory to lossy, compliant hammers will be discussed.