Overtone flute

Does anybody know a good site about physics of overtone flute? I measured frequences of first few notes with closed and open end and it seems that with open end it gives pure overtonescale and with closed end overtone scale starting from third overtone (fundamental nr 1). There is something strange with numbers and I have to keep on measuring...maybe it is just because my equipment is iPhone.

Tags: overtoneflute, physics, theory

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Permalink Reply by David Stuetzel on March 3, 2011 at 1:25am

Hello Sauli,
the questione has to do with cylindrical pipes: if you close one end, the fundamental will be one octave lower and there will be onely every second note of its harmonic series - only odd harmonics. perhaps you did not really get the actual fundamental note with one end closed, as this series with every second note missing has larger intervalls between, the fundamental is verry far of: an octav plus a fifth lower than the next playable overtone....
it can be a little bit different with an actual instrument, depending on how small the opening at the mouthpeace end is, and if the pipe is really cylindrical, but you shoult find it close enaugh to recognize...
the reason why that is so: you find it described usualy in a different context: physics of the clarinet.
the reason is simply because the clarinet allwayes overblows like a cylindrical pipe that is closed on one end, only in this case the mouthpeace end "counts" or should I say "behaves" like a closed end... where as flutes are allways open at the mouthpeace...
so you could find a lot of other sites, but this is one about open and closed pipes, or fluts and clarinets, or overtoneflutes with open and closed end - which is all the same for the acoustical difference it makes:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/flutes.v.clarinets.html

(the iPhone should be ok, but trie the free version of the overtone analyzer software...)