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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday December 21 2016, @07:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the stringing-you-along dept.

Stradivarius violins are renowned for their supposedly superior sound when compared to other instruments. This has resulted in numerous studies hunting for a scientific reason for why Strads sound so good. A number of these studies have focused on the chemical composition of the wood in violins made in Cremona by Antonio Stradivari in the 17th and 18th centuries. Others have considered the violins made by Stradivari's contemporary, Joseph Guarneri del Gesu, whose violins are widely considered to be just as good.

Research often looks at how the materials used in the construction of the instrument define its superior quality. For example, one study argued that a "little ice age" which affected Europe from 1645 to 1715, was responsible for the slow-growth wood used in the construction of the violins that gives them a particular quality. This type of wood would have been available to all violin makers in Europe so other work has looked at the particular varnish applied to Strads. But the most recent study on this showed that Stradivari finishes were also commonly used by other craftsmen and artists and were not particularly special.

Now a team of scientists from National Taiwan University have tried to uncover the secret of Stradivarius violins by analysing the chemistry of the wood they're made from. The researchers found that the aged and treated maple wood had very different properties from that used to make modern instruments. But is there really a secret to be found in the Stradivarius?


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Francis on Wednesday December 21 2016, @08:53PM

    by Francis (5544) on Wednesday December 21 2016, @08:53PM (#444470)

    Why would they upload them to archive.org or youtube? http://www.pbs.org/show/nova/episodes/ [pbs.org] Considering the length of the episodes on there, they're mostly full episodes. Granted, they're not all there, but there's a huge number of episodes available for free.

    What annoys you about them, is that they're lefties, not that they're doing anything wrong here. The shows are freely available without paying anything, the pledge drives are how the materials are funded. Which is even more important since the various rightwing nutjobs are continually after their funding sources for failing to back their nutty theories of the world.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @09:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @09:41PM (#444490)

    Troll? Haha more like telling it like it is.

    http://www.christianpost.com/news/should-big-bird-be-subsidized-82894/ [christianpost.com]

    Yes, creationism, flat earth, unnecessary environmental protection cause God will fix it... such great "theories" deserving of public funding! And the conservative folks get mad when they are modded trolls but do the same thing when they don't like something. I will say the 2nd paragraph is trollish, no need to go full blown douche about it.

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday December 23 2016, @05:28PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 23 2016, @05:28PM (#445106)

    There seem to be a few episodes missing, like, say, everything predating 2014 or so.

    There were some good historical episodes. Voyager 2 at Saturn was a classic.