How a violin’s f-holes influence its sound
Air accelerates quickly through long, narrow openings, powering instrument’s lowest notes
How a violin’s f-holes are shaped can influence the instrument’s lowest notes.
MIT scientists, along with a Boston-based violin maker, analyzed how air moves through a violin’s f-shaped holes and through the round, half-moon and C-shaped sound holes of violin ancestors from the 10th to 16th centuries. Air accelerates more quickly through the long, narrow f-shaped holes than through round holes, allowing violins to put out more powerful sounds at lower frequencies. The finding, published online February 11 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A, suggests that the shape of the violin’s holes may have evolved to create slight gains in acoustic power.