Cleaning out my in-box...
About a month ago, I wrote:Or perhaps he's referring to something like this: http://www.lucytune.com/academic/freq_to_wave.html
To which Ronn! replied:I do point out in class (I think I originally read it in an essay by Isaac Asimov) the fact that the frequency of the most extreme violet light humans can see is just about twice that of the most extreme red light we can see, which is the same relationship between the frequencies of, say middle C (256 Hz) and high C (512 Hz), so one could make the analogy that the width of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum is one octave, then note that while a piano keyboard spans 7 1/2 octaves, the frequency of detectable electromagnetic radiation as shown in that diagram covers something like 100 octaves or more . . .
Just one tiny point of clarification... High C is actually 1024 Hz, two octaves above middle C, and on the staff with a treble clef it would be represented by a note two leger lines above the staff. The C at 512 Hz is (as you correctly stated) one octave above middle C and is on the third space from the bottom within a staff with a treble clef. Middle C is one leger line below the staff. Other than that, that's a very interesting observation, that visible light is within the span of an octave. I'm sure I can find a way to use that in a piece of music somehow...
http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/2notes.html
(I've seen both "leger" and "ledger" used, and I picked "leger" because it matches the usage on the quoted website.)
Reggie Bautista
When I was studying lasers, our lab had a pumped laser which could excite a variety of materials. We had a dye of some sort which was putting out a blue/green beam. It would put a hole in a thin sheet of metal. But it was more interesting that it produced a humming as it cut the metal, around 2 Khz, and it could be varied by changing the pumps strength or the material it was pumping. Even the proof didn't know what was making it.
That's a poor description, but it was a strange thing to see and hear.
Kevin T. - VRWC Ratt in 24 hours! (another poor thing to see and hear? ;-)
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