Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Fabrication and Testing of Microfluidic Optomechanical Oscillators
Published on: May 29, 2014
Mechanical and optical investigation of dynamic behavior of violins at modal frequencies
Ewa Skrodzka1, Antoni Krupa, Eike Rosenfeld
1Institute of Acoustics, A. Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 85, 61-614 Poznań, Poland.
Abstract:
Two main aims of our investigation are to show differences in natural vibrations between two violins that differ in the thickness of the back plate and to determine whether they are linear systems. Two experiments were performed on the top and back plates. The first experiment was a mechanical modal analysis in a version with a fixed response point. In the second experiment optical measurements of the plate's velocities in modal frequencies obtained from the first experiment were performed by use of laser Doppler vibrometry. The second experiment was a simplified modal analysis experiment with a fixed excitation point. Changes in the thickness of the back plate caused changes in certain modal frequencies of both plates. However, no important differences in mode shapes were found in both experiments. Thus, violins can be treated as linear systems but with great care.
Related Concept Videos
Problem-Solving: Tuning of a Guitar String
The string's wave speed can be regulated by varying the linear density. Tension is the other property that determines the speed of...
Torsional Pendulum
As long as the rigid body's angular displacement is small, its oscillation can be modeled as a linear angular oscillation. The amplitude of the oscillation is an angle. The role of mass is played by the...
Modes of Standing Waves - I
Damped Oscillations
Although friction and other non-conservative...
Modes of Standing Waves: II
For a tube open at one end and closed at the other filled with air, the modes are such that there is always an antinode at the open end and a node at the closed end.
IR Spectrum Peak Splitting: Symmetric vs Asymmetric Vibrations

