On 02/08/2016 10:05 AM, T. Diehl wrote:
> the scientifc number 415.3 Hz in musical practice is the same as 2.3
> children,

Ah, here's the problem, I think. They're not the same at all.

"Children" is a dimensionless number, and always integers.

Hz has two parts, a numerator which is dimensionless and always an 
integer, and a denominator which is conventionally set to 1 and is 
measured in seconds. But the denominator is only a convention. We can 
set it to whatever value we find convenient. 1 second is convenient 
because 1 just disappears and seconds are everywhere around us.

So, if we play a 415.3 tone for 10 seconds, we get 4153 wave cycles, 
which is now an integer because we've set the denominator to 10. Or, to 
put it another way, the frequency can now be written as "4153 cycles per 
gorp" where 1 gorp = 10 seconds.

Here's the point: the human ear knows about cycles, but it doesn't know 
about seconds, and nobody knows anything about gorps because I just made 
them up.

best,
  Stuart

-- 
i still have a very small website
http://dustyfeet.com

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