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The Physics Behind the Nonsense

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I couldn\’t think of a new question for the series, so I decided to head out on Google and look for some questions to answer. Here is one from the site Fun Stuff to Do.

How can you tell when it is time to tune your bagpipes?

The Short Answer

If you need to tune your bagpipes, it would be better if you bought a new set.

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The Long Answer

I have previously done a post about on why you sound much better when singing in the shower than when singing outside on WordPress.com. The physical phenomenon in bagpipes is similar to that, and will be discussed on this post.

Bagpipes are just a collections of pipes connected to a bag, which allows the user to keep air flowing through the pipes when the user is out of breath. The pipes are of different length, and that is what gives the bagpipes their characteristic sound, and the reason they do not need to be tuned if still in pristine condition.

For simplicity, we will look at one pipe. The bag does not actually do anything to change the tuning of the pipe, just like a recorder sounds exactly the same no matter who uses it. When air is made to vibrate in the pipe, molecules start moving in a manner that a standing wave is produced. This is the same physical process that makes your voice quality in the shower better than outside. However, the actual events differ ever so slightly.In an open pipe (one with both ends uncovered), the air is pretty much free to move in and out. This makes the air molecules on these places vibrate the most, hence making an antinode where the wave has the largest possible amplitude (range of motion). Near the centre of the pipe, the molecules cannot move as much, creating a node where they have the smallest possible range of motion.
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This means that when air is blown through the pipe, half of a complete wave is produced throughout its length at any time. This implies that a
full sound wave\’ length is twice the length of the pipe, which in turn determines the frequency of the sound produced. Since it is the frequency that determines the pitch of a sound, this then implies that the length of the pipe determines the pitch it produces.

So unless the bagpipes are either damaged or adjustable, there is no need to tune them. And since the only time they need to be tuned are when the pipes are damaged, it would be better to have them replaced, or replace the whole instrument altogether.

Additional effects of the standing waves produced are:

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Application

All classical musical instruments rely on standing waves to produce, amplify, and change the quality of the sounds they are associated with. Tuning generally happens when the wave length of the sound produced depends on more than the length of the part that produces sound, such as the tension in strings and drumheads.

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