Nick Grosman, age 15, of St. Augustine, Fla., for his question:

HOW LONG WOULD A STRETCHED OUT FRENCH HORN BE?

If you were to stretch out all of the French horn's many coils, you would have a tube about 16 feet long. The popular French horn is a brass band or orchestra instrument that offers a pleasing musical sound. The horn is made from a thin metal tube that is twisted into coils and flares out into a wide bell.

Originally, French horns had crooks, or extensions of the tube, which were used to change the horn's pitch by changing its length. Then, in 1754, a German musician named Anton Hampel invented a method called stopping the horn. The player would change the tone and pitch by inserting the fingers of his right hand into the bell. Since the 1800s, however, French horns have had three or four pistons or rotary valves for smooth and quick changes of pitch.