(note: This is a duplicate of my post on the "string stretching" thread, but I want to make sure  it doesn't get passed over by those that have tired of the debate. I believe this is previously  unmentioned information.) For whatever it is worth, I submit this piece of information I recently found: -----   Science 1 April 2005: Vol. 308. no. 5718, p. 13 Section: "This week in Science" Sneaking a Peak at Creep Creep is the slow deformation of a material that occurs when it is held under constant load, such as the gradual stretching of a piano or violin string. During creep in a metal or metallic alloy, voids form and grow with time, in addition to changes in the texture and orientation of the crystal grains. Pyzalla et al. (p. 92) have developed a technique to monitor all of these changes at once, and they use it to track creep in a brass alloy. They confirm that the transition from homogeneous creep to localized deformation occurs late in the creep process and suggest ways of how other simultaneous diffraction and tomography measurements may be used to track crack growth or load partitioning within a composite. ------ That is the entire quote. The paper it refers to ("Pyzalla et al.") is VERY technical, says nothing about steel or piano wire, and it pretty much meaningless to my untrained eye. However, I fact it fascinating that in an off-the-cuff comment from the writers of one of the most prestigious peer reviewed science journals in the world simply takes it as obvious that piano (and violin) strings slowly stretch specifically due to "creep" Are we seriously suggesting that it is flat out WRONG? I mean, by all means lets pursue it, because it would be more than awesome for a piano tuner to point out an error in Science Magazine, but my hopes are less than high. Here is the link to the blurb: <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/308/5718/13c" target="_blank">http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/308/5718/13c</a> And here is the actual article: <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/308/5718/92" target="_blank">http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/308/5718/92</a> (free registration is required) Kurt