the.com/tuning fork
A metal 'U' that hums one pure truth so everyone else can stop arguing about pitch.
means A two-pronged metal instrument that, when struck, vibrates at a precise, fixed pitch, used to tune instruments or check your sense of relative pitch.
from Straightforwardly descriptive: 'tuning' + 'fork,' named for its two-pronged, fork-like shape. It was invented in the early 1700s by an English trumpeter and lutenist seeking a reliable way to pitch his instruments — physics, not poetry, gave it its pure tone, since a forked shape vibrates cleanly at one steady frequency rather than muddying into overtones like a solid bar.
- invented
- 1711, by trumpeter John Shore
- standard pitch
- A440 vibrates 440 times per second
- physics trick
- two prongs cancel noise, keep one pure tone
- medical use
- doctors test nerve and bone hearing with it