So I'm in third year Physics and I'm down to do a project in C++ in a few weeks. I've got a weak background in the subject (mostly limited to simple calculations, can't do images or user interaction appart from cin, much to my dismay >.<) but I'm going to have lectures and stuff to back me up when I'm doing it.
Anyhow, my idea is to make an image of a string stretched between two fixed points which a user can stretch by clicking on the screen in different places that will, when the user lets go of the click, bounce back and undergo harmonic oscillation, like a guitar string.
I'm ok at maths, and so on paper I can fourier transform the string to find it's oscillatory components and hence what it will do over time, but I was hoping that there is some way to do it with an algorithm on a computer. Further, I plan to translate the oscillations of the string into components of a sound that the computer outputs.
Whilst probably being challenging but doable on paper, I have very little idea of how to do any of these things on computer >.<
Hence I would be very grateful for any help or advice anybody can offer me ^_^
Essentially, I want to;
~ make a grid on the screen that recognises a click at a point as an input in x and y.
~ Use a code to model the behaviour of the string when it is released from this point (pressumably via some Fourier method).
~ Have the string move around on the screen according to said behaviour.
~ Translate the frequency components of the string into sound from a sound output (scaled up in frequency for human hearing)
[Edit; they say we should learn fltk for graphics purposes, I'm not sure about how much freedom we have for using other graphics libraries and stuff and I'm not sure on what extra is allowed for the project; pressumably they won't be that harsh)