Dalton News

HS Physics Class Incorporates Cello Music into Lesson on the Science of Sound

Our faculty always finds creative ways to incorporate interdisciplinary programming into their core coursework. This week, in HS Science Teacher David Lindo’s class Acoustics: The Science of Sound and Music, HS Physics students learned the physics of a cello!
First, they observed the motions of a vibrating string to infer the resonant motions of a cello string. They learned how to calculate the wavelengths and frequencies of the different harmonics. Then they visualized in slow motion what’s really happening when the rosin on a bow catches the string pulls.

Finally, musician Senior Kari Hunte '23, volunteered to play the first and second harmonics on his cello while the class measured their frequencies, calculated their wavelength, and used math to successfully predict where he had actually placed the bow.
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