Guitars. We all love 'em. Only some of us can play them at an incredible level. The rest of you who claim you can "play them" but only can pseudo-play a few bars of that "one song" you vaguely remember, are just imbeciles. To the righteous "rock gods" the title "Master of Magnetism" can also be bestowed (except for country guitarists). Why? Electric guitars use magnets.
Oh silly Keanu. Not to worry, Haleigh and Doug are here to explain everything to you.
An electric guitar senses the vibrations of the strings electronically and sends an electronic signal to an amplifier and speaker to produce sound. This occurs in a magnetic pickup set under the strings on the guitar's body. This pickup consists of a bar magnet wrapped with about 7,000 turns of wire. Coils and magnets can turn electrical energy into motion. In the same way, they can turn motion into electrical energy. In an electric guitar, the vibrating steel strings produce a corresponding vibration in the magnet's magnetic field and therefore a vibrating current in the coil.
Guitarists are actually all members of the Inertia Club. Yes, even Brian May.
As you can see, the bar magnets picks up on the string's vibration which in turns sends a signal to the amp to produce the sound. The amp creates sound you can hear by pushing the electric current into a magnet which is attached to a speaker, and the magnet vibrates a speaker, converting electrical current back into sound (think the soup can magnets we made in class). The magnetic field around the steel (ferromagnetic) string moves up and down with the string, which causes electromagnetic induction, or a current in the pickup.
*It should be noted that because acoustic guitars do not have a magnet, they instead rely on their hollow shapes to resonate sound.
In fact, a guitar (or any string instrument rather) can be constructed using JUST magnets! Here a scientist/musician/nerd has blended physics with classical music and generated a magnetic cello. To play it, the musician uses not a standard horsehair bow, but a magnetic rod that produces a voltage within an attached coil which serves as the bridge of a cello. The magnetic cello's strings meanwhile, consist of resistive ribbons connected to a oscillator, allowing the player to manipulate volume with the magnet-bow as it adjusts the voltage.
There you have it! The physics behind the signature sound of an electric guitar explained. We hope you're all as excited about this real-life connection as this kid is! We know we are!!!!!!!
Rock on, fellow scientists! Unless you're super in to country music. Then you can go drink out of a "Red Solo Cup" somewhere.
(Slash: Rock God, but also Lord of Physics?)
Guitars. We all love 'em. Only some of us can play them at an incredible level. The rest of you who claim you can "play them" but only can pseudo-play a few bars of that "one song" you vaguely remember, are just imbeciles. To the righteous "rock gods" the title "Master of Magnetism" can also be bestowed (except for country guitarists). Why? Electric guitars use magnets.
An electric guitar senses the vibrations of the strings electronically and sends an electronic signal to an amplifier and speaker to produce sound. This occurs in a magnetic pickup set under the strings on the guitar's body. This pickup consists of a bar magnet wrapped with about 7,000 turns of wire. Coils and magnets can turn electrical energy into motion. In the same way, they can turn motion into electrical energy. In an electric guitar, the vibrating steel strings produce a corresponding vibration in the magnet's magnetic field and therefore a vibrating current in the coil.
As you can see, the bar magnets picks up on the string's vibration which in turns sends a signal to the amp to produce the sound. The amp creates sound you can hear by pushing the electric current into a magnet which is attached to a speaker, and the magnet vibrates a speaker, converting electrical current back into sound (think the soup can magnets we made in class). The magnetic field around the steel (ferromagnetic) string moves up and down with the string, which causes electromagnetic induction, or a current in the pickup.
*It should be noted that because acoustic guitars do not have a magnet, they instead rely on their hollow shapes to resonate sound.
In fact, a guitar (or any string instrument rather) can be constructed using JUST magnets! Here a scientist/musician/nerd has blended physics with classical music and generated a magnetic cello. To play it, the musician uses not a standard horsehair bow, but a magnetic rod that produces a voltage within an attached coil which serves as the bridge of a cello. The magnetic cello's strings meanwhile, consist of resistive ribbons connected to a oscillator, allowing the player to manipulate volume with the magnet-bow as it adjusts the voltage.
There you have it! The physics behind the signature sound of an electric guitar explained. We hope you're all as excited about this real-life connection as this kid is! We know we are!!!!!!!
Rock on, fellow scientists! Unless you're super in to country music. Then you can go drink out of a "Red Solo Cup" somewhere.
WORKS CITED
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/electric-guitar1.htm
http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/tutorials/java/guitarpickup/index.html
http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/24/magnetic-cello-almost-makes-it-cool-to-play-the-cello-video/