We propose an experiment in which the sound of a drumroll is recorded and analysed according to a simple mechanical model in which the inelastic restitution coefficient of the collision between the stick and drum surface, as well as the ongoing kinematics of the drumstick, are considered. The agreement shows that this model is well suited for…

The udu is a traditional Nigerian percussion instrument that can be thought of as a Helmholtz resonator with two apertures. We use a simple two-particle mechanical analogue to study the behaviour of such a resonator and find that the model describes quite well the main features of udu acoustics.

In the violin, the fundamental air cavity mode (the A0 mode) is associated with the sound radiated by the f-holes. The dependences of the sound velocity of the A0 frequency on gaseous temperature and mass were investigated. It was found that the frequency of the A0 mode changed, depending on the molecular weight and the temperature of the gas…

When a new topic is introduced in the curriculum, teachers seek various ways to teach students the related concepts. For the novel topic 'materials' in the revised Dutch curriculum, I developed an experiment in which students determine Young's modulus using a guitar string. The experiment not only covers several concepts related to 'materials' it…