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Why does plucking a guitar string harder make a louder sound?
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sound
Learn about the propagation of sound waves from a point source by observing the motion of a suspended vibrating spring.
When you pluck a guitar string harder, you increase the amplitude of the resulting sound wave. In the physics of sound, amplitude represents the magnitude of the fluctuation of a wave from its equilibrium position.1
By plucking the string with more force, you cause the string to vibrate with a greater displacement, which in turn displaces more air particles. This increased disturbance creates a sound wave with a higher amplitude. Because amplitude determines the loudness of a sound as perceived by the human ear, the resulting tone is louder. Mathematically, this amplitude is directly related to the acoustic intensity—the rate of energy transmission—of the wave.12