Why do some metals ring when struck while others don’t?

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Why do some metals ring when struck while others don’t?

In: Physics

22 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Pretty sure this is a result of density, as well as shape. Take a cymbal on a drum kit, you strike it and it makes a loud crash fallowed by a low hum. Taking the same material if you constructed a large brick and struck that, you’d get a tapping sound.

This is the result of vibration running through the object, with a brick, it’s so dense the vibrations arnt as pronounced, hence the lack of ringing. Similarly if you took, say lead (rather then brass) and made a cymbal and struck that, you wouldn’t get the same ring, as the stick would strike the lead and instead of the lead vibrating, it’s density would cause the vibrations at the end of your stick, and depending on how hard you hit it even your wrist might vibrate more then the lead.

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