Klarinet Archive - Posting 000192.txt from 1998/08

From: "Arnold Teres" <johnathant@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Clarinet dislikes hot summer?
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 18:59:48 -0400

My Selmer CenterTone also "dislikes" hot and humid environments. I too find
the far altisimo nearly impossible on such days but the same reed indoors in
air conditioning does well. Of course, the entire insturment is indoors and
I don't mean that the reed is at fault - just that the same setup seems to
respond to humidity. A quick glance at a periodic table shows that one mole
of air has a mass of about 28.6g while one mole of water has a mass of about
18g. This calculation is based on air being 21 % diatomic oxygen and 78%
diatomic nitrogen - the rest is carbon dioxide and other gases - not enough
to make a big difference. This means that the more humid air becomes the
"lighter" (read less dense) air becomes. I don't know if 90% humidity on a
hot day "lightens" air enough to matter to a clarinet. Does anyone have some
information on the effects of air density on clarinets?

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