Physics 489: Physics of Music, with Project
Completed: A+
The purpose of this course is to study the physical aspects of the phenomena that make up the practice and experience of music, as well as to get a glimpse into physics as a mental activity. Topics to be covered include: the nature of sound; mechanics of vibration; musical tones and intervals; scales and temperaments; wave motion, interference, and diffraction; propagation of sound through pipes; physics of brass instruments; physics of woodwind instruments; physics of string instruments; physics of the piano; and high-fidelity sound reproduction. In addition, Physics 489 also requires an independent theoretical or experimental graded project.
Winter 2002, Professor Daniel Axelrod
This was the best class I had all year. Dan Axelrod is one of the funniest professors I've ever met. Although a professor of physics, he really enjoys music and enjoys sharing music with the class. The best part of the class was both the jokes and the quotes: "Conservation of equations." As an my independent study project I designed, built, and demonstrated a Theremin and followed it up with a paper on my research and results. The paper is avaliable here in PDF format, but it is just over a megabyte in size due to the images:
Theremaniac paper (PDF - 1.05MB).
Quotes:
- "It has more syllables so it is more appropriate for a university."
- "...Conservation of Equations..." talking about Newton's 3rd law
- General Rules of Science: "Usually experiments don't work!"
- An experiment "Uses up energy, I get hungry."
- "Everyone knows air molecules are pink." Looking at a viewgraph
- "See this green stuff, you might think thats ink. Your Wrong, its a spring!"
- "That reminds me of StarTrek."
- "Things go better with coke!" using a coke bottle as a resonator
- "Everyone has different taste in music so I'm just adding some seasoning.
- "Its hard to keep good sugar down"
- "...Pressure squiggle..." The ideal way to talk about sound waves
- "Break Time!!!" Some kid yelled from the back of the room in the middle of class
- Heuristic - when a mistake is called "for educational purposes."
- "Now we're watching a video about ... He's not alive anymore, but he was when the video was made."
- "A blessed event, a violin just got born"
- "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask, and some of those are really stupid."
- "Often in life when people give an answer, you'll find it's because they don't know what they're talking about."
- "To a zero-order, a cow is a sphere" If you wen't to high-school with me, you'd know why this was funny
- "Physics without equations is like beer without alcohol"
- When playing a piece of religious music: "This isn't everyones' religion but it's a popular one. [Pause] Only if you can call mass guilt popular."
Notice:
Information provided on this page is a result of undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan. Material may be copyrighted by the University of Michigan, James Glettler, and/or the various co-authors noted in group projects. Finished assignments are offered only for reference.