Savart’s disk

measurement device

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July 13, 2026

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Savart's disk, further developed by Félix Savart in the 19th century, is a device used to measure sound frequency. It is often demonstrated in physics lectures today. The device operates by rotating a disk with evenly spaced holes at high speed, interrupting a jet of air directed at the holes. This interruption creates regular pulsations that generate a sound wave. The frequency of the sound wave, and thus its pitch, is determined by the number of air puffs per second, which is calculated by multiplying the number of holes by the number of revolutions per second. This invention is a significant contribution to the field of acoustics, building upon earlier work by scientists like Galileo Galilei and Marin Mersenne.12

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acoustics
Early experimentation
…Savart, and now commonly called Savart’s disk, this device is often used today for demonstrations during physics lectures. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, detailed studies of the relationship between frequency and pitch and of waves in stretched strings were carried out by the French physicist Joseph Sauveur,…
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…Savart, and now commonly called Savart’s disk, this device is often used today for demonstrations during physics lectures. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, detailed studies of the relationship between frequency and pitch and of waves in stretched strings were carried out by the French physicist Joseph Sauveur,…
Read More