HERE’S an excerpt from Queena Lee-Chua’s latest column piece:
Randles often credits the Greek geometer Pythagoras for insisting on harmony in music. What role does Pythagoras play here? Recall the study of waves in basic physics. Those with the shortest wavelengths are for invisible light (such as X-rays, microwaves and ultraviolet rays), followed by relatively short color waves (such as the rainbow). Longer wavelengths are for sound waves.
According to Randles, the note “do” (from do re mi) has a particular frequency, measured in hertz. To ensure that music sounds good, the notes should follow a certain ratio, discovered by Pythagoras millennia ago. This ratio should be familiar to musicians: 1/1, 2/1, 3/2, 4/3, 5/4, 6/5, and so forth.
April 22nd, 2007 at 10:15 am
Allow me to call your attention to a not-so-minor oversight. Microwaves are NOT shortwave radiation. They are classified as low frequency, long wave radiation. I refer you to http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/ems1.html
Thanks.
December 17th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Maam, I usually like your article and such, in particular because you represent one of the few torches of critical thinking in our poor-muddle-headed country, but I’m afraid the article posted here made absolutely no sense to me.
Pythagoras -> Sound waves -> Sound uality as defined by constructive and destructive interference of sound waves…
What is the connection? Or to put it more succintly, what new information (i.e. new data, a novel view/opinion, a theory) are you trying to impart to us? Even if the original article made sense, this particular excerpt makes absolutely No sense! Why bother writing (or copying and pasting it)?