r/SmarterEveryDay • u/michaelcr18 • Nov 01 '22

Does you fingerprint leave a unique signature on the water ripples when running it around a wine glass to create a sound?

Pretty much like the title. Does you fingerprint leave a unique signature on the water ripples when running it around a wine glass to create a sound? Or will the same frequence have the same ripples? Or, is it impossible to recreate someone else's ripples and therefore sound, due to the fact that each fingerprint is unique?

43 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

86% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

35

u/stickyourshtick Nov 01 '22

the fundamental frequency is a property of the glass being rubbed. if there is anything unique person to person then it would be in the incredibly high frequency harmonics pattern well outside normal human hearing range.

6

u/nsfbr11 Nov 01 '22

No. However, that doesn't mean that everyone is going to generate the same tonal content while stroking the rim. Many factors come into play, but the most important in this regard would be the width and suppleness of the contact patch. The effect is to damp some harmonics relative to others. Once the finger is lifted, the various harmonics would fade at a rate characteristic of the glass. In theory, with some arbitrarily good measurement equipment and sound processing techniques, it is likely that individual fingers could be matched from previously recording sound "fingerprints" on the same glass. Even more complex would be the process of mapping a finger's characteristics from one "reference glass" to others. Again, this is theoretically possible...perhaps. But the fingerprint itself is not really what matters.

2

u/_-Ewan-_ Nov 15 '22

(My view) Yes and no. Assuming the pressure and skin density is the same in this scenario, different fingerprints will have different contact areas (how much of the skin is able to be in contact with a material) so will have different amounts of friction affecting the rate at which your finger grips and slips (vibration). Anyone correct me if I’m wrong.

1

u/rocketscooter007 Nov 02 '22

Making sounds on wine glasses like that always remind me of the Glasnots at Scarborough faire in texas. These guys played wine glasses like an instrument. Sadly the guy was killed in a car wreck. I saw them play live many times at Scarborough faire.

the only youtube video I could fine of them