why strings go flat by themselves.

[antares]

On 28-mrt-05, at 16:37, Alan wrote:

> Andre's post still leaves the question unanwered, for me. For the 
> system to
> wind down like that, the tension still has to go somewhere, i.e., if 
> the
> string relaxes, something else is tensing up, so to speak.
>


Isn't it obvious Alan?
Aren't all things going down the tube sometime?
Look at strings : when you put new strings on a piano, they stretch.
Why do they stretch?
Because the material they are made of stretches, i.e. the molecules and 
atoms.
Again, look at a piece of elastic .... you can stretch it and it wants 
come back to its original state.
You stretch it a number of times... and it breaks, because the 
'material' got tired.
Now look at the material called plastic... when plastic gets old, the 
material deteriorates, gets old, and it breaks (up).
Look at plants : when they are young, they are sappy and supple. What 
do they look like when they are old?
They shrivel and become cork.
Look at old people: when they are young they are supple and can do 
fantastic gymnastics. Now look at them when they are old : they can not 
bend anymore, their bones get brittle... in other words: they get 
brittle and then die.
Now look at strings again :
You stretch those new strings and immediately they resist their new 
form... they want to get back to their erstwhile shape.
Nevertheless, you stretch them again and again and again and again and 
again and again and again and again and again.
Then something happens over time : the material finally gets tired ands 
brittle.
In the mean time, those strings have lost a considerable amount of 
their tension and the aging process causes them to break.
So.......... if you leave this piano (tuned at 440 Hz) untouched.....
What will you find after a hundred years?
You will find it at an incredible low pitch and possibly a number of 
strings will have been broken because of old age and rust.

  Need I say more?


EARR

friendly greetings
from
André Oorebeek

www.concertpianoservice.nl

"Where music is no harm can be"