Abstract
The vibration of a bowed violin string has been studied since the 19th century, and the string was found to oscillate in a simple triangular pattern described by Helmholtz. Today this problem is the stick and slip vibrations excited by friction which can claim to be well understood. Stick-slip vibrations are self-sustained oscillations induced by dry friction. The authors attempted to study this problem by observing the wave form of the bowed violin string by use of a high-speed camera and computer. The principal result of this study of the bowed violin string is a confirmation that its motion is a close approximation to the simple triangular wave predicted by Helmholtz and shown the stick-slip vibrations on the triangular wave.
