Now now children. Tony <div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 1, 2013 11:17 AM, "Ron Nossaman" <<a href="mailto:rnossaman@cox.net">rnossaman@cox.net</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> On 1/31/2013 6:06 PM, Euphonious Thumpe wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> Please allow me to point out, Kind Sirs, that the function of simple tuning fork exhibits those traits of energetic transmission/transmutation that some members of this list seem to discount as fantasy: specifically, that when the ball at the end of a tuning fork stem is simply, gently pressed (with no solid mechanical coupling) against some object (and with the briefest of all possible contact points) energy is transmitted from the laterally oscillating tines well ABOVE that point TO that object; which then transmits them to the the surrounding air, resulting in sound of a louder volume than the tines alone impinging on the air create. And that this phenomenon will transpire even if the object thus pressed against is a distinctly non-diaphragmatic -- as we normally conceive it -- one, such as a cube. I thus find it implausible that such an easily observed phenomenon would not find expression in a structure as large, solid, and rife with vibratory excitement as that which a piano presents. </blockquote> The tines of a sounding tuning fork move in opposite directions from one another, the tips describing a curve. It's not an arc, and I don't know what the curve is called, but it is a curve. When the tines are parallel, the fork is at it's longest overall length. When the tines are either closest together, or farthest apart, the fork is at it's shortest overall length. The difference isn't much, but there is a difference. This cyclic difference in length causes the handle tip to cycle up and down perpendicular to the tine movement. Press the handle against something solid and it cyclically pushes against the object, moving it slightly, displacing air, and producing a tone that is twice the frequency of the fork since there are two length change cycles for each tine cycle. That's it. Ron N </blockquote></div>