RESONATOR

acoustical device for reinforcing sound, as the sounding board of a piano, the belly of a stringed instrument, the air mass of an organ pipe, and the throat, nose, and mouth cavities of a vocal animal. In addition to augmenting acoustic power, resonators may also, by altering relative intensities of overtones, change the quality of a tone. See also soundboard. The Helmholtz resonator is an enclosed volume of air communicating with the outside through a small opening. The enclosed air resonates at a single frequency that depends on the dimensions of the containing vessel. The term resonator also denotes a system of electrons within a molecule or ion that absorbs electromagnetic waves of particular (resonance) frequencies ( see chromophore).