Calculating the acoustic input impedance of a simplified brass instrument as an educational laboratory activity

Abstract

The concept of acoustic impedance is often difficult for students in introductory acoustics courses to make sense of, especially students without advanced mathematics backgrounds. This work summarizes a laboratory activity for students in a general education musical acoustics class where a simplified brass musical instrument is examined, focusing on how the geometry of the air column affects the input impedance of the instrument. Students are guided through making bore profile measurements for use in a computation of the input impedance. Options for making experimental measurements of the simplified instrument are explained. The laboratory activity was successfully used with students who reported their increased understanding of the acoustics of brass musical instruments.