Musical strings and sound board materials-new exercises for materials engineering

Two years ago, students in introduction to materials engineering began studying basic subject areas within the course in the broad context of musical instrument design. Results from the initial assessment data show that the students enjoy the course more and score higher, as a group, on certain examination questions. For example, a classic set of problems involves calculating stress, strain, yield, and the elastic constant given load and elongation data. The new way to introduce these same concepts is to use the tuning and design process for a stringed instrument. While many students are unaware that objects strain under load, they do know that musical strings change pitch as the load is changed during tuning. Once the students understand the underlying concepts based on idealized musical strings, they more easily transition to classical problems. This paper describes the new exercises and design problems that were developed; it also gives the data needed to develop many additional exercises. Lectures and data sets will be available on a CD. The paper concludes with the initial assessment data and goals for changes in the course.