Why does the piano belong in the percussion family?

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Most people don't consider it a percussion instrument, as most percussion involves directly striking the surface that makes the sound (thus the definition of percussion), whereas depressing piano keys cause hammers to strike stretched strings. Due to the fact that a Piano has strings, it is usually classified with guitars, harps, and other stringed instruments as a Chordophone. The classification is arguable though, as pianos have many similarities with the xylophone, vibraphone, and marimba, which are considered percussion instruments.

As per my 5th grade music class, it is a percussion instrument and is listed as such in many 5th grade music books.

The second paragraph of Wikipedia's page on Pianos briefly addresses the classification issue (see related link).

First answer by Sawaba. Last edit by Btrumpetp. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributorrecommended]. Question popularity: 8 [recommend question].