On hearing the'"shape"' of a vibrating string

Mark Kac (1966) first posed what is now a famous question in mathematical physics: "Can you hear the shape of a drum?" In this article, the author discusses a related question concerning vibrating strings. Many musical instruments, including the guitar, piano, and violin, employ vibrating strings. The string vibrational modes are well known: they are just the usual standing waves. This problem nicely illustrates the power of Fourier analysis with a number of examples that fit easily into the classroom, particularly as part of a course on physics simulation methods.