The sound of music

Abstract

When a new topic is introduced in the curriculum, teachers seek various ways to teach students the related concepts. For the novel topic 'materials' in the revised Dutch curriculum, I developed an experiment in which students determine Young's modulus using a guitar string. The experiment not only covers several concepts related to 'materials' it also provides a clear link to the physics of music and illustrates to students, aged 16, why the topic 'materials' could be of interest.