Cents making sense

[George Takats]

At 04:49 PM 2/5/97 -0600, you wrote:
>
>Some Questions:
>
>Not sure why, but someone (had to be a mathematition) decided to divide up
>each interval into 100 parts.  Each part is called a cent.  Since there are
>12 intervals in an octave there are 1200 cents in an octave.
>
>What is the difference between cents in an interval, and per cent of an
>interval?
>
>Is 2 cents the same as 2% of an interval.
>
>If I read that a third is flat by 3.5 cents, how do I translate that to
>cycles per second.  Other wise how would one figure the beat rates for
>different temperaments?
>
>I know little about logs other than the ones that heat my house.  Can cents
>be calculated with out them.? Better yet is there a way to calculate
>temperaments without using cents?
>
>Here are some calculations I have tried.  Looking for confirmation or
>corrections, or suggestions.
>
>
>Distance between one interval       100 cents.
>
>Freq of Middle C   (mC)       261.626
>Difference between mC and C#  in cps.   277.183 - 261.626=  15.557
>Difference between mC and C# in cents
>      100
>
>Question:  Does one cent here mean a value of .15557  cycles per second?
>
>
>If I want to tune mC sharp by 4 cents.  Do I
>multiply .15556 by 4 and add it to the freq of mC ?
> 261.626 +  0.62224 =  262.24824
>
>I ask this because I have seen some tables that give different temperaments
>in cents differing from Equal Temperament.  To tune by ear one needs to
>know the beat rates of the intervals, and to figure these the cycles per
>second have to be known.  Then the partials must be figured, and then
>the beats from them.    OR is there a way to figure beat rates from cents?
>
>
>Thanks for your consideration
>
>Richard Notoutofthewoodsyet Moody
>
>He went to the woods to learn about logs.
>
>
>
>
>Try to read Dr. Braid White's book called "The Modern Piano".  I call it
the "bible" of piano understanding.
George