Physics is the study of pretty much everything: what makes apples fall, why it’s impossible to stop a moving train quickly, how you can get lightbulbs to burn cooler.

Physics can also explain why an orchestra sounds the way it does—and a series of six short videos produced by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Physics Department does just that.

David Abbott, instructional support specialist in the Physics Department, is also a musician who plays cello, guitar, and viola da gamba. Abbott presents the physics content in the series. The first video, “Noise vs. Sound,” explains how the “pitched sound” used to create traditional music differs from “unpitched sound.”

In the next two videos—“Loud and Soft” and “High and Low”— Abbott shows how physics explains the difference between these two attributes of music. During the remaining videos—“Length and Pitch,” “Overtones or Harmonics,” and “Timbre”—Abbott is joined by bass trombonist Jeff Dee; violinist Amy Glidden, lecturer of music; and oboist Anna Mattix. All three are members of the BPO, and they illustrate Abbott’s explanations with their instruments.

The BPO presented a concert, Science of Sound, on April 27 that demonstrated how laws of physics are involved in the making of music. The concert was part of the BPO’s Youth Concert Series.