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All We Need is Newton

Since there are no relativistic or quantum effects to worry about in musical instruments or audio effects (at least not yet), good old Newtonian mechanics will suffice for our purposes. Newton's three laws of motion can be summarized by the classic equation2.4

$\displaystyle f = m\, a$   (Force = Mass times Acceleration)$\displaystyle .
$

However, the apparent mathematical simplicity of Newton's basic laws of motion does not mean that our task will always be easy. Models based on Newton's laws can quickly become prohibitively complex. We will usually need many further simplifications that preserve both sound quality and expressivity of control.


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``Physical Audio Signal Processing'', by Julius O. Smith III, W3K Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9745607-2-4
Copyright © 2024-06-28 by Julius O. Smith III
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA),   Stanford University
CCRMA