Motion of Plucked String

What happens to a string when it is plucked?

[@EpicSpence]

Very good. This clip is exactly what people who are studying music should watch. Hats off to u :)

[@luiseduardojatarmontano1983]

This is an excellent experimental video, Thanks a lot for sharing

[@saptarshimondal7324]

Awww....what an explanation...mind blowing really 💓💫

[@jeniferdawson6972]

THANKYOU SO MUCH, IT HELPED ME :)

[@rixille]

Is there a video you could upload of this happening in the midpoint of the string's length? I would like to see the typical y = sin(x) characteristics.

[@poojamishra8383]

Thanks for this 😊😊😊👱👍👍👌

[@iamarunch]

Professor Russell, I have some doubts on travelling\standing waves and I hope to clear it from you. So, is a travelling wave just a superposition of natural modes. Is it right to say that a travelling wave is just excitation( plucking) of the many vibration modes (standing waves) at once and its response is the 'travelling' effect.

[@berndeinfeldt1228]

Nice movie - would be interesting to see this for a round wound (guitar) string for different tensions. You use a Fourier series - assuming the motion is governed by a linear wave equation?

[@kadira418]

How it is possible to see sinusoidal wave on string with phone camera record? Thanks/

[@liutaioramon]

Hi Dan, i'm Ramon Elias, violin-maker and i prepare an article of curios efect on bowed string instruments call "wolf note". i would ask you if is posible i use this video for my article is very clear and to easy to understand thanks best regards (i'm catalan sorry for my english) ramon

[@Fluf-lv1iu]

thx man!!

[@jseigle]

Very informative, although there is an implication that a guitar string does this. The string used in this video is far more flexible than a guitar string. I would be interested in seeing this repeated with an actual musical instrument string under working tension.

[@DanRussellPSU]

Yes - a plucked guitar string does (almost) exactly this . . . only much faster because the strings are stiffer and the frequency is higher -- the low E string (84 Hz) on a guitar exhibits this cycle of vibration 84 times per second, and the amplitude is much, much, smaller so it is very difficult to observe even with a high speed camera. I am preparing a paper for publication that show the out put of several types of guitar pickups (optical, magnetic, force) which shows that the initial motion the steel guitar string immediately after being plucked, exhibits exactly the motion shown in this video for a more elastic string. I'll try to remember to post a link to the article and an accompanying website (with images and sound files) when I finish getting it ready for publication.

[@cgtsai1971]

Hello. I am preparing a talk on the physics of musical instruments. It would be great to show this video. Can I have your permission to do so? Thank you very much.

[@industrialdonut7681]

Ahhh this is EXACTLY the motion I'm trying to study but the video is so low res whyyy xD

[@DanRussellPSU]

It was recorded 9 years ago with a $700 "high speed" camera -- the best camera I had available at the time. Filming at 1000 fps automatically reduces the resolution (unless you have access to a much better high speed camera, in the $5,000-$20,000 range -- which I did not have access to.)