Physics Commons^™

Two Notes On A Piano, Samuel Thomas

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In an increasingly digital world, the analog tends to be neglected in exchange for the convenience and precision of digital devices. However, many analog systems exhibit physical phenomena that can be difficult to reproduce digitally. The purpose of this project is to explore the piano and parts of its sonic character that are not currently accounted for in digital systems. Specifically, when multiple notes are being propagated on a soundboard, they affect each other’s tone because each one changes the state of the soundboard. The effect is evident in the partials of each note: the partials (not quite harmonics but …