dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaTorsional waves in a bowed string
| Authors | Eric Bavu, John Smith, Joe Wolfe |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0505059 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505059 |
| Journal | Acta Acustica united with Acustica 91, N2 (2005) 241 |
Abstract
Bowing a string with a non-zero radius exerts a torque, which excites torsional waves. In general, torsional standing waves have higher fundamental frequencies than do transverse standing waves, and there is generally no harmonic relationship between them. Although torsional waves have little direct acoustic effect, the motion of the bow-string contact depends on the sum of the transverse speed v of the string plus the radius times the angular velocity (rw) . Consequently, in some bowing regimes, torsional waves could introduce non-periodicity or jitter to the transverse wave. The ear is sensitive to jitter so, while quite small amounts of jitter are important in the sounds of (real) bowed strings, modest amounts of jitter can be perceived as unpleasant or unmusical. It follows that, for a well bowed string, aperiodicities produced in the transverse motion by torsional waves (and other effects) must be small. Is this because the torsional waves are of small amplitude or because of strong coupling between the torsional and transverse waves? We measure the torsional and transverse motion for a string bowed by an experienced player over a range of tunings. The peaks in (rw), which occur near the start and end of the stick phase in which the bow and string move together, are only several times smaller than v during this phase.
{
"annotation_id": "6425cf1c-c602-4c7f-9d44-0fa6a30141d9",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:57.046000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:57.046000Z",
"file_hash": "f82912e99795a43af981b40690868b114d26c76a5eb7155849fc9604db8faa9c",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "Bowing a string with a non-zero radius exerts a torque, which excites\ntorsional waves. In general, torsional standing waves have higher fundamental\nfrequencies than do transverse standing waves, and there is generally no\nharmonic relationship between them. Although torsional waves have little direct\nacoustic effect, the motion of the bow-string contact depends on the sum of the\ntransverse speed v of the string plus the radius times the angular velocity\n(rw) . Consequently, in some bowing regimes, torsional waves could introduce\nnon-periodicity or jitter to the transverse wave. The ear is sensitive to\njitter so, while quite small amounts of jitter are important in the sounds of\n(real) bowed strings, modest amounts of jitter can be perceived as unpleasant\nor unmusical. It follows that, for a well bowed string, aperiodicities produced\nin the transverse motion by torsional waves (and other effects) must be small.\nIs this because the torsional waves are of small amplitude or because of strong\ncoupling between the torsional and transverse waves? We measure the torsional\nand transverse motion for a string bowed by an experienced player over a range\nof tunings. The peaks in (rw), which occur near the start and end of the stick\nphase in which the bow and string move together, are only several times smaller\nthan v during this phase.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0505059",
"authors": [
"Eric Bavu",
"John Smith",
"Joe Wolfe"
],
"categories": [
"physics.class-ph"
],
"journal_ref": "Acta Acustica united with Acustica 91, N2 (2005) 241",
"title": "Torsional waves in a bowed string",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0505059"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "8e4d2366-c1fc-4834-ab2a-149b864c0076",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}