Robert Schumacher

Emeritus Professor, Physics

Education

Ph.D., University of Illinois

Research

Recent interests have been mainly in the field of musical acoustics, specifically concerned with the oscillation mechanisms of musical instruments such as violins, clarinets and flutes. In collaboration with my colleague Professor Steve Garoff and Professor Jim Woodhouse of Cambridge University, I am investigating the interplay of friction and system dynamics in a system derived from my long term interest in the bowed string. The work is based on the most recent references listed below.

Selected Publications

• Schumacher, R. T., Garoff, S., and Woodhouse, J., Probing the Physics of Slip-Stick Friction using a Bowed String. J. of Adhesion 81, 723 (2005).
• J. Woodhouse, R. T. Schumacher, and S. G. Garoff, Reconstruction of bowing point friction force in a bowed string,  J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 357 (2000).
• R. T. Schumacher and S. G. Garoff, Bowing with a glass bow, Catgut Acoust. Soc. J. 3, 9 (1996).
• R. T. Schumacher and J. Woodhouse, The transient behaviour of models of bowed-string motion, Chaos 5, 509 (1995).
• R. T. Schumacher and Woodhouse, Computer modelling of violin playing, Contemporary Physics 36, 79 (1995).
• R. T. Schumacher, Measurements of some parameters of bowing, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96, 1985 (1994).
• R. T. Schumacher, Analysis of Aperiodicities in Nearly Periodic Waveforms, J. Acoust. Soc. Am.91, 438 (1992) .
• R. T. Schumacher, Compliances of Wood for Violin Top Plates, J. Acoustic Soc. Am. 84, 1223 (1988).