Page:Young - Outlines of experiments and inquiries respecting sound and light (1800).djvu/35

 to a representation of the actual circumstances; but, as the laws by which the motion of the particles of air is regulated, differ according to the different origin and nature of the sound, it is impossible to adapt a demonstration to them all: if, however, the particles be supposed to follow the law of the harmonic curve, derived from uniform circular motion, the compound vibration will be the harmonic instead of the arithmetical mean; and the secondary sound of the interrupted vibrations will be more accurately formed, and more strongly marked, Plate VI. Figs. 41, 42: the demonstration is deducible from the properties of the circle. It is remarkable, that the law by which the motion of the particles is governed, is capable of some singular alterations by a combination of vibrations. By adding to a given sound other similar sounds, related to it in frequency as the series of odd numbers, and in strength inversely in the same ratios, the right lines indicating an uniform motion may be converted very nearly into figures of sines, and the figures of sines into right lines, as in Plate V. Figs. 39, 40.

The number of vibrations performed by a given sound in a second, has been variously ascertained; first, by, by a very ingenious inference from the beats of two sounds; and since, by the same observer and several others, by calculation from the weight and tension of a chord. It was thought worth while, as a confirmation, to make an experiment suggested, but coarsely conducted, by, on a chord 200 inches in length, stretched so loosely as to have its single vibrations visible; and, by holding a quill nearly in contact with the chord,