When I was small, it was fashionable in some circles to knock, to shun even, the applied mathematics which featured strongly in the mathematics curricula of most universities at that time. Whereas yesterday I took a dive into reference 1, an old but cheap copy of what appears to be a standard text.
Where I learned the curious fact the solutions of the wave equations for a stretched string - such as that of a violin - are quite different from those of a stretched circular membrane - such as that of a drum, thus accounting for the very different timbres of the two instruments. The suggestion seems to be that the overtones of a drum are not harmonics, are not harmonised, in the way of those of a violin.
The move from one dimension to two dimensions clearly makes a big difference. Whatever is going to happen when we move to three?
Reference 1: Advanced Engineering Mathematics – Erwin Kreyszig - 1999.
No comments:
Post a Comment