Tuning Forks
Most recent answer: 10/22/2007
Q:
What are tuning forks and what do they do? Thank you
- Aimee (age 13)
Great Lakes College, Australia
- Aimee (age 13)
Great Lakes College, Australia
A:
A tuning fork is a metal instrument which is designed to vibrate at a particular frequency. It usually has a handle with a rounded ball on one end (so you can touch it to another object without scratching the other object). Attached to the handle are two "tines" -- usually square in cross-section, and often quite long. The steel is springy, so if you hit the fork, the tines will move together and apart and together and apart again. Here’s a picture of a set of fourteen of them. The little ones have higher natural frequencies than the bigger ones.
They are used mainly by musicians to help tune their instruments. Only a small fraction of people can hear a note and tell you exactly what the pitch is. A much larger fraction of people can tell you which of two notes has a higher pitch than the other. If a musician falls into the latter category, then an absolute standard is needed every time he tunes his instrument, and a tuning fork is a handy thing to carry around -- all you need to do is tap it a little, and touch it to a sounding board, or just hold it up to your ear, and compare it with the note produced by the instrument.
These days, tuning forks may be a little old-fashioned. Electronic tone synthesizers are much more flexible (you can get only one pitch out of a tuning fork, but cheap electronic box will make lots of different ones for you for about the same price). But some musicians prefer tradition.
Tom J.
They are used mainly by musicians to help tune their instruments. Only a small fraction of people can hear a note and tell you exactly what the pitch is. A much larger fraction of people can tell you which of two notes has a higher pitch than the other. If a musician falls into the latter category, then an absolute standard is needed every time he tunes his instrument, and a tuning fork is a handy thing to carry around -- all you need to do is tap it a little, and touch it to a sounding board, or just hold it up to your ear, and compare it with the note produced by the instrument.
These days, tuning forks may be a little old-fashioned. Electronic tone synthesizers are much more flexible (you can get only one pitch out of a tuning fork, but cheap electronic box will make lots of different ones for you for about the same price). But some musicians prefer tradition.
Tom J.
(published on 10/22/2007)