[pianotech] theory question - back to pianos

[Ron Nossaman]

On 9/28/2011 7:42 AM, Leslie Bartlett wrote:
> Is inharmonicity caused by stiffness, or by the fact the string has
> mass, and the sound waves cannot create mathematical perfection because
> the thickness of the string makes it impossible to perfectly bisect the
> speaking length of the string, or perfectly create any of the segements’
> partials?
>
> Les bartlett

It's the stiffness. A much heavier wrapped string can have a much lower 
inharmonicity than a thin plain wire string farther up scale. Here's 
another instance where using the scaling tools available is illustrative 
and informative.
Ron N