ASA 125th Meeting Ottawa 1993 May

4pMU9. Scaling of bells.

H. John Sathoff

Phys. Dept., Bradley Univ., Peoria, IL 61635

Thomas D. Rossing

Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL 60115

The fundamental frequency of a bell has roughly the same dependence on thickness and diameter as flexural vibrations in a circular plate, and thus in designing a bell chime or ensemble of bells, it would be possible, in principle, to scale all dimensions proportional to 1/f. Tonal considerations often dictate otherwise, however, and in practice different scaling laws are found in ensembles of large and small carillon bells, church bells, handbells, and ancient Chinese bells that have been studied.