Fundamental Frequency of a String
Enter your known values, leave one input blank, and solves for the missing one. Try different units for next level excitement!
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A string fixed at both ends can only sustain standing waves whose half-wavelengths fit its length exactly, and the longest fit — a single half-wave — is the fundamental. Fretting a guitar string shortens L and raises the pitch in inverse proportion: halve the length and the note jumps an octave. The same formula, with v as the speed of sound, gives the fundamental of a pipe open at both ends.
Fundamental Frequency of a String
Where
- = Fundamental frequency
- = Wave speed on the string
- = String length
Missing one of these? Work it out first, then come back
- Fundamental frequency — Fundamental of a Closed Pipe, Harmonic Frequencies
- Wave speed on the string — Wave Speed (v = fλ), Wave Speed on a String
- String length — Simple Pendulum Period, Fundamental of a Closed Pipe