Emory Harry Wrote:
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> Joe,
> Thank you. That is really a cool site. I hope
> that people will look at it and think about what
> they are seeing. And you are right on with your
> comment about waves being waves being waves.
> I would point out though that the site makes a
> point about the velocity of the waves. When the
> amplitude increases the velocity decreases and
> when the amplitude decreases the velocity
> increases. This is determined by the mechanical
> impedance that I commented on earlier. But we as
> rod makers and fishermen do care about the
> amplitude of the vibrations but we do not really
> care about the velocity because the velocity under
> virtually all conditions is too fast for us to be
> able to sense or detect.

That is indeed an interesting site! Strange is should come up at the same time I read something in BassMasters magazine that I questioned. Emory or anyone else want to take a shot at the answer?

In the magazine there is an article w/Marty Stone discussing the technique of Carolina Rigging. In the article Marty discusses the tackle he uses. When he discusses the line test/type he indicates he uses 15# flurocarbon main line w/ 17# leader material. On first blush I was sure this was a mis-print. But after viewing the web site Joe posted and seeing how a wave from is modified upon encountering a differrent density carrier I'm having to revist my first assumption that the article had a mis-print.

On the web site one of the animated wave froms shows the wave going from a thick line to a thin line indicating the wave is coming from a carrierl with highrt density to a carrier having less density. The animations appear to only address the issue of density and I don't know if there's an implication of mass that I'm not aware of. Also in viewing that animation I can clearly see the change in amplitude but after viewing it multiple times I can not determine is there is a frequencey gain/loss as well.

Now the questions.

1.) What input better promotes the fishermans ability to detect a bite? Frequencey or amplitude. Gut feeling says amplitude. I suspect taken to extremes the answer could well be "either" I am looking for the answer that addresses the critera contained within the confines of the question. In reviewing Emory's response I found the answer to this question - just didn't detect it on the first read. Amplitude.

2.) This next question puts me in totally uncharted waters and I don't have a clue. If you have a material that is of the same composition one is lager(17#test) and one is smaller(15# test) is the density identical and only the mass changes?

3.) If only the mass changes from one carrier to the next how is the signal modified and to what extent? When going from higher mass to lower mass of the same density(if that's possible) Is the signal modified pretty much the same as, but to a lesser degree in both amplitude and frequency, depicted in the animated wave from on that web site which addresses density only?

Inquiring minds want to know....



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2010 08:44AM by Doug Weissinger.

I suspect that not only mass but surface area enters into the ability of a fishline to transmit wave energy. Water is a dense medium which must be displaced in order for fishline to transmit energy through it. The larger the diameter of the line the more water must be displaced in transmitting the wave. This impedes the progress of the wave and causes energy loss. A tin can telephone does not work well if the string connecting the cans is immersed in water, particularly if the string is thick.

Doug,
Density is the mass per unit of volume. What is called mass density is the mass per unit of length. These do not change as the size of a material changes, or the diameter of a line changes.
If the elasticity of the material is ignored then as a vibration goes from a material of lower density to a material of higher density the amplitude of the vibration will decrease. If the vibration goes from a material of high density to a material of lower density the amplitude of the vibration will increase. How much they change is a function of the ratio of the two mechanical impedances. If the ratio is two to one the amplitude will change by a factor of two. Mechanical impedance is the square root of the mass density times the elasticity.

Phil,
I think that you may be correct but I am not sure. It is an interesting question that we should probably look into.
Water is not really all that high in density. I suspect that mono is higher but braid may be lower.

Emory - Let me see if I can say what you said in Bubba terms... If a 6" piece of 4# test mono floats on water it is less dense than water. Because the mono is less dense than water it would not matter if it were a 6" or 6' piece of 400# test mono it would still float. Density is the property governing a materials ability to transmit signals, wave forms whatever we choose to call them? As you said elasticity aside am I correct in interpreting you to say they would transmit the signal equally? OR.... is it at this point mechanical impedence rears it's head? I suspect it is. And if that's so then a 15# piece of mono would indeed transmit a signal better than a 17# piece of mono with mechanical impedance driving the difference in abilities between them? Right??? Wrong???? Or does elasticity have more influence than mechanical impedance handing the edge to transmit signals back to the 17# mono? And just to make sure you don't sleep too well tonight. If you induce 5# of tension, for example, on both the 15# and the 17# mono - which one would transmit the signal better?