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Piano tuners tune pianos by listening to the beats between the harmonics of two different strings. When properly tuned, the note A should have the frequency 440 Hz and the note E should be at 659 Hz . The tuner can determine this by listening to the beats between the third harmonic of the A and the second harmonic of the E.A tuner first tunes the A string very precisely by matching it to a 440 Hz tuning fork. She then strikes the A and E strings simultaneously and listens for beats between the harmonics. The beat frequency that indicates that the E string is properly tuned is 2.0 HzThe tuner starts with the tension in the E string a little low, then tightens it. What is the frequency of the E string when she hears four beats per second?

User Chromium
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1 Answer

3 votes

Answer:

658 Hz

Step-by-step explanation:

Third harmonic is given by


f_A=3* 440\\\Rightarrow f_A=1320\ Hz

Second harmonic is given by


f_E=2* 659\\\Rightarrow f_E=1318\ Hz

The difference between the two frequencies is 1320-1318 = 2 Hz

Now,
\Delta f=4\ Hz

The beat frequency is given by


\Delta f=3f_A-2f_E'\\\Rightarrow f_E'=(3f_A-\Delta f)/(2)\\\Rightarrow f_E'=(1320-4)/(2)\\\Rightarrow f_E'=658\ Hz

The frequency of the E string when she hears four beats per second is 658 Hz

User Ezra Steinmetz
by
8.0k points
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