Question

Sitar maestro Ravi Shankar is playing sitar on its strings, and you, as a physicist (unfortunately without musical ears!), observed the following oddities.
I. The greater the length of a vibrating string, the smaller its frequency.
II. The greater the tension in the string, the greater is the frequency.
III. The heavier the mass of the string, the smaller the frequency.
IV. The thinner the wire, the higher its frequency.
The maestro signalled the following combination as correct one.

• A. II, III and IV
• B. I, II and IV
• C. I, II and III
• D. I, II, III and IV

Answer 1

The correct option is D I, II, III and IV

Guitar string is a standing wave as both the ends of guitar string are fixed.

$f\propto \frac{1}{length}$

$f\propto \sqrt{tension}$

$f\propto \frac{1}{\sqrt{\mu }}$, where $\mu$ is mass per unit length.

$f\propto \frac{1}{\text{thickness of wire}}$