1987 paper<\/a> by Thomas D. Rossing and Robert Perrin exploring the forms and vibrational modes of church bells, carillon bells, and handbells. A given bell\u2019s sound is determined by relatively simple geometry\u2014which determines the vibration patterns radiating sound to listeners\u2019 ears\u2014and the material of which it is made (bronze), which determines the exact pitch and duration of the ring.<\/p>\nPer Sean Collier, co-author of this latest article, relying solely on the meager online information about the Liberty Bell to replicate its sound produces \u201ca terrible sounding bell that in presence does not match the silhouette of the iconic bell.\u201d There are several full-size replicas of the Liberty Bell made in the 20th century, including one housed on the Penn State Behrend campus, and one can tap that bell to produce a ring. But scientists desire more quantitative information, such as the specific notes, which notes ring the longest, and how the bell deforms as it vibrates. And that requires modal analysis, a technique used by bell manufacturers to assess tuning and make any necessary corrections.<\/p>\n
For instance, Western church bells are typically tuned to the first five normal frequencies, according to the authors\u2014the hum note, fundamental (the note that is most dominant to the human ear), tierce, quint, and nominal\u2014following well-defined ideal ratios. \u201cMusically, the frequencies sound as a minor triad, which is why church bells are commonly perceived as having a somber tone,\u201d they wrote. Further, \u201cThe human ear perceives the pitch of a bell as a subjective tone called the strike note,\u201d arising from the combination of how the mode shapes interact, and the listener\u2019s own expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Modal frequencies The Liberty Bell replica at Penn State Behrend. Credit: Seth Collier The Liberty Bell replica at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-804832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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