h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Tuning Fork - A87737647
Author: h5ringer (Scout & Sub-Editor) - The Maestro Cat - U3386111

This is a spin-off from another Entry that was never finished. I am just now resurrecting the parent Entry, so this might as well precede it then I can link to it later.

btw I've got a blob to go with this

This is a really rounded entry and covers all the things I've ever asked myself about the tuning fork and more! h5ringer standard, of course - can't find anything to quibble at all.

I was amazed that it was actually invented by an Englishman, and not, say, a German, as one might expect, especially at that period. But even German sites attribute the invention to Shore. I also found mention, by the way, that, as well as Handel, he also worked with Purcell. Maybe that is worth including?

This is great, h5. There's only one place where I'd suggest a change: you say "The direct air-borne sound output from a tuning fork is very low" - the word "low" is normally used in music to mean pitch, and this might be confusing. I'd word it differently.

The Eds and Artists will consider you picture. Can you put it on the web somewhere where we can look at it? (eg Flickr etc) If not you can always e-mail it to the Eds.

Done those TC and Gnomon I'll get the blob pic emailed as soon as I can.

I found the bit about what happened before this was introduced particularly interesting, but it's all good!

Only thing - you don't actually say what it's for. Explicitly, or much at all until you get to the invention section. Long exposure to non musical people tells me this is not something we can assume people know. Perhaps a sentence or two in the first para?

Also, a genuine question, are they always concert a?

Another faultless contribution h5ringer

I am looking forward to seeing the illustration too - thanks!

I just have one thing to suggest, your sentence:

Its most common use is as an aid to tuning musical instruments.

Could you amplify this and add that many non-musicians will have experienced a medical examination where a tuning fork is used to check nerve damage? Sensoneural deafness and peripheral nerve damage. Although these are slightly different than musical tuning forks, they function in the same way, and are possibly the way that a large group of people have physically come into contact with one.

Something I'd never considered before reading this entry - why *do* the prongs of the fork vibrate in their plane? What is it about the structure of the tuning fork that makes this happen? [Probably beyond what needs to/should go into this entry, just my curiosity!]

One other thing occurs - how much (if at all) is the pitch affected by fluctuations in temperature?

It was in the second para, wasn't it? *sigh* Ignore me. Do you also say how? I am afraid to look... I obviously skipped straight to the history bit this morning...

I mean (just to make it clear I did read it!) I know there's a lot of detail about how the tuning fork works, but what does a musician do with their instrument once they have the tuning fork up and running.

Or is that too beyond the scope of the entry?

Actually I hadn't thought of using it for tuning instruments primarily. Having sung in choirs a lot, I am used to the conductor using it to give everyone their first notes without having to dash over to the piano every time.

The conductor in our a cappella choir always gives us the note from a tuning fork, even in concerts.

So it's not always A then? Or do you just orientate from there?

The conductor sounds an A on the tuning fork which only he hears. He then hums a note or a series of notes in the correct key.

I seem to have a vague recollection that some brass instruments tune to b flat or some such oddity which may be a) complete nonsense and b) not stop them using an A tuning fork.

I'm a double bass player. Please do feel free to trot out the incompetent musician jokes now.

Smlpost. Ah, makes sense.

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I'm no expert on this but I believe it is due to the fact that the 'clapping' mode of vibration (as the motion of the tuning fork prongs is sometimes called) is the only one that does not result in a net bending strain on the stem of the fork. A number of vibration modes are theoretically possible, but all bar the clapping mode are probably self-damping, leaving it as the dominant mode.
I'm against adding too much physics into this Entry, but is the general feeling that it needs adding? If so, could someone with a physics background provide a proper answer.

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The effect of temperature on the pitch of the fork is negligible, another reason for it being a good standard.

Sol, don't worry, I've done the same thing myself in the past

Off now to add the choir-tuning and non-medical uses

ok, a brief uses section added

Yes, (some) brass instruments are pitched in B flat - it just means that they are playing a 'B' to compare against the concert A of the tuning fork (or oboe).

So not complete nonsense on either count.

See! That's true! We tuned to the oboe, or the violin, not a tuning fork in orchestras. It's all flooding back. Plus I had a piano at home. In fact, I only bought a tuning fork in the last few years.