
Violin Practice and Finger Length
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Does playing the violin change the length of your fingers? Violinists press strings with their left hand for years. Over time, those fingers may grow longer than the ones on their right hand.
You measure all four fingers on both hands of 60 people. Half are violinists with at least five years of experience. The other half have never played. The participants fall into three age groups.
Violinists' left fingers are about 7mm longer than their right. Non-musicians show the opposite pattern. Age does not make a significant difference.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that violinists have longer fingers on their left hand, while non-violinists will have shorter fingers on their left hand.
Method & Materials
You will measure the length of the index, middle, ring and little fingers of 60 people, 30 of whom are violinists and 30 of whom are non-violinists. You will compare the length of their left and right fingers to see if there is a difference.
You will need 10 participants from each of the age groups 12 to 20 years, 21 to 30 years and 31 to 40 years old. You will also need a ruler and a wooden block.
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See what’s includedResults
We found that violinists have longer left fingers than their right fingers by about 7mm. Non-violinists have longer right fingers compared to their left fingers by about 8mm. Their age did not make a significant difference in finger length.
Why do this project?
This science project is interesting because it shows how playing a musical instrument can affect the length of our fingers.
Also Consider
Experiment variations to consider include measuring the finger length of musicians who play other instruments like the guitar or piano, and measuring the arm length of baseball pitchers.
Full project details
Additional information and source material for this project are available below.Related video
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