Question

A musician hits a drum with a drumstick. In three to four short sentences, explain the collision forces between the drum and drumstick

Answer 1

When the stick strikes the drumhead it produces a rapidly rising contact (normal) force; by Newton’s third law the drumhead pushes back with an equal and opposite force on the stick. That brief force pulse deforms the head and the tip of the stick, storing and then returning elastic energy which launches vibrations in the membrane and body. The time shape and peak of the force (the impulse) depend on impact speed, masses, and stiffness, and these determine the loudness and spectral content of the sound. Any tangential component or damping converts some energy to heat and limits how long the drum vibrates.