Oops...

This weekend was a weekend full of concerts and rehearsals for me. I started with a 2 ½ hr Youth Symphony rehearsal on Friday night, a rehearsal and concert for our school’s orchestra from 3-8:30P.M/ on Saturday, and another rehearsal/concert for Youth Symphony from 11:30A.M to about 9:00P.M. (yeah, I was pretty busy). Through all this one of my most important tools is my Getzen Custom Series 3047AFR trombone. I bought it in 10th grade and its been my main concert horn ever since, travelling with me to Kaui and Japan. When I first got it, it was nice and shiny, and although it still is fairly nice and shiny, it is now showing the signs of “heavy use.” Scratches are somewhat unavoidable, but also present on my trombone are dents both big and small. The largest dent is on the top of the main tuning slide. It dropped from the top of my trombone on a really hot day once (the hotter it is, the sharper your instrument gets. For example at ideal conditions your note A might be at 440Hz, but on a really hot day, the A played in the same position might be at 444Hz). The tuning slide had a potential energy of about (0.75kg)(9.8)(1.5m)=11.025J. When it hit the ground, all the potential energy was converted to kinetic energy. The velocity at which my slide hit the ground was thus about 5.42 m/s. When the slide hit the ground, there was an impulse between my slide and the ground. Since I did measure the velocity of the tuning slide immediately after it bounced off the ground or the time it stayed in contact with the ground (No, I did not drop and dent my slide in the name of science!), I cannot calculate the impulse, but I can conclude that the impulse was strong enough to leave a sizable dent in my brass tuning slide (brass is actually quite malleable). So I guess every time my trombone gets new “battle scars,” I’ll be thinking about physics!


My trombone doesn't look like this anymore =( (image courtesy of Getzen Co.)