String Frequencies By Temperature.

[olive5]

I'm working on some physics problems involving sound frequencies with string and wind instruments, and the current problem has the temperature drop from 20deg Celsius, to -12.7deg Celsius. Too my knowledge this problem disregards any wood expanding/contracting done by the instrument by the environment, but only the strings themselves and what frequency they produce by the change in tune. I haven’t been able to find any information on how temperature affects string frequencies... only on how they affect wind instrument frequencies.

Could anybody shed some light onto this topic?

 

[pam]

You would need to find a table of the temperature coefficient of expansion for catgut,
and then a table for Young's modulus for catgut. Then a bit of a calculation would give the result. It is certainly much less of an effect for strings than air.
Actually it wouldn't affect a competent violinist at all. Don't you tune a violin by ear while adjusting the tension, or be beats with a tuning fork if you have a bad ear?