Re: Pianos in Space

The catenary assumption would not be valid for a piano string.  It is far
too short, stiff and under high tension; not to mention that it is confined
at its ends.  It's vibration would be calculated using beam formulas.  A
vertical string would not form itself into a catenary anyway; it would be a
straight line*.

Since gravity would have virtually no effect on a vertical string's
vibration and there seems to be no appreciable difference in grand versus
upright sustain times for equal length strings, I think we can safely assume
that gravity has a negligible effect on sustain.

Don

*well, I suppose that one could argue that it is a special case of the
hyperbolic cosine formula, but that's getting a little pedantic.


"james" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> Don A. Gilmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >gravity.  One might argue that gravity acting on the strings of a grand
> >should change their timbre, but it would probably be indescernible since
> >uprights don't have this lateral gravitational pull.
>
> But, does gravity affect sustain?  With a uniform grav force, the string
> can be represented as a catenary, regardless of the orientation.   That's
> as far as I get setting up the problem...
>
>
>
>