Which of the following is a possible frequency for the string?

Question

A piano tuner wants to tune a particular string to vibrate at 330 Hz. Suppose when he strikes the string with a 330 Hz tuning fork, he hears 180 beats in one minute. Which of the following is a possible frequency for the string?

a. 310 Hz

b. 320 Hz

c. 327 Hz

d. 330 Hz

e. 350 Hz

Answer 1

180 beats per minute is 180/60 = 3 Hz frequency difference from the tuning fork so the frequency is either 330 + 3 or 330 - 3

or 327 or 333  so the answer is c.

Answer 2

c. 327 Hz

the difference in frequency is the beats per second. 180 beats per minute is 3 per second or 3Hz. So the possible frequencies are 330 + or - 3 Hz

Answer 3

There are 180 beats per 60 seconds. This means there is about 3 beats every second. Hertz measures cycles per second. This means every cycle there are 3 beats per second. Divide 1 by 3 beats per second, then find which is closest.