I Instrument Size & Wavelength: What's the Relationship?

accdd
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What is the relationship between the size of the instrument and the wavelength you want to measure? Both in general relativity and in other areas.
 
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There are many limits which look like Heisenberg Uncertainty relations that follow from the Cauchy-Schwartz Inequality. Like diffraction limits for a camera.
What is your particular question?
 
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Why do we need large instruments to detect waves with large wavelengths? Why can't we detect smaller wavelength waves with large instruments (and viceversa)?
I have also read that some instruments must have dimensions comparable to the wavelength that allows the phenomenon of resonance. What are the general principles for sizing an instrument?
 
accdd said:
Why do we need large instruments to detect waves with large wavelengths? Why can't we detect smaller wavelength waves with large instruments (and viceversa)?
For the same reason that one cannot make a piccolo sound like a tuba.
accdd said:
I have also read that some instruments must have dimensions comparable to the wavelength that allows the phenomenon of resonance. What are the general principles for sizing an instrument?
It depends upon what you are trying to optimize. There are fundamental limits that deal with noise and information. Resonance allows maximizing signal to noise but the cost is specificity of detection.
 
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hutchphd said:
For the same reason that one cannot make a piccolo sound like a tuba.
Did you know that the opening of The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky is a bassoon played in a high register?

 
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PeroK said:
id you know that the opening of The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky is a bassoon played in a high register?
Hence the rioting at the premiere.
 
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