You Are at a Coffee Shop with a Friend and Have

Essay

You are at a coffee shop with a friend and have had enough caffeine that OSHA should be involved. You are talking late into the night with a friend who is a physics major and you say "I have absolutely no idea why pianos, guitars and xylophones all rely on transverse waves to make their sounds. I am going to re - construct those three instruments so they make beautiful music with longitudinal waves!" On the way home, the physics major thinks of a good reason that such instruments use only transverse waves. Please discuss what you think such a good reason may be.