Klarinet Archive - Posting 000698.txt from 1998/09

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] heat expansion
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 22:26:44 -0400

At 01:34 PM 9/19/98 -0700, Bill Edinger wrote:
>"When the wood expands, the diameter SHRINKS."
>
>Whoops. Recall your high school physics days, when you heated the iron
>ring with the ball that just barely failed to fit through it when both
>were at room temperature. You heat the ring, and what happens? Does
>the hole shrink? No, it expands too, because if it were to shrink
>(decrease in diameter), it would become MORE compressed. The ball now
>goes through because the ring - analogous to a cross-section of a
>clarinet bore - expands evenly throughout. So, if it were significantly
>expandable (which I don't believe it is), a wood bore would increase
>with warming, not decrease. But Dee had it right, I think, when she
>pointed out that the air temperature differences are the critical
>factors.
>
It sounded wrong when it was first explained to me, too. But even if I WAS
misinformed, I still don't think air temperature differential is the
critical factor. The air inside warms up/cools off very quickly, which is
why they say NOT to play right away on an instrument you just brought in
out of car in extreme weather.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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