rulers + tape +books = Rule Organ

Steven Goodwin shares tips and measurements for making the perfect study hall instrument –

If there’s one piece of science that every kid knows, it’s that twanging a ruler on the edge of the desk makes a noise, and by changing the amount of overhang will change the pitch. Give anyone a new ruler, and the first thing they’ll do is twang it, to see how it sounds. This is an interesting fact of life.
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So, to bring an element of fun back to the proceedings, we can combine these facts to build a very simple ‘rule organ’. By taping thirteen rulers to a nearby desk, each with a different amount of overhang, we have a rudimentary musical (?!?!?!?) instrument. So, how much overhang is necessary, and how do we do it?

Head over to his site for the specifics – Rule Organ

– The Rule Organ on Flickr

10 thoughts on “rulers + tape +books = Rule Organ”

Joel Kirchartz says:

July 25th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

While skimming this for the basics … I saw him talking about letting the rulers overhang by x ammount of millimeters, and the gap between the edge and the marking.

The first question I asked myself is: How does he know how far each one is hanging … then I realized He’s using 13 perfectly good rulers.

c’est la vie … Make = The Best.

Tony Bullard says:

July 25th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

This is pretty much just evil to post something like this without video or audio. I challenge you to find one person who read this article that didn’t want to hear what it sounds like.