The math behind perfect 5th tuning

[Michael Wathen]

At 03:17 PM 2/4/97 -0600, you wrote:
>
>
>----------
>> From: Robert Scott <rscott@wwnet.com>
>> To: pianotech@byu.edu
>> Subject: Re: The math behind perfect 5th tuning
>> Date: Tuesday, February 04, 1997 12:32 PM
>>

>Now for a brain tickler, if you multiply 27.5 times 1.059463094359   88
>times what note do you get ?? 	Hint  27.5 is the freq of the first
>(lowest) note (A) on the piano.


I'm jumping in rather late.  But I saw this and thought I would respond.  If
we write this out in equation form then we get:

        (27.5^1.059)*88 = X

I dont' have a calculator in fron of me.  Let's analyze what this says.  If
I take the quantity in the parentheses first that would give me the
frequency of A#0, my guess is that it is about 28.?? hz.  Multiply that by
88 times and you get at least 1584 hz. The top note on the piano is over
4000hz.

I think you mean something quite different.

        27.5 times 2 to the 88/12 power


                or

        27.5 * 2 ^(n/12)   where "n" in this case is 88 but in general is
the number of the note.
****************************************************************************

Michael J. Wathen			Phone:	513-556-9565
Piano Technician			Fax:	513-556-3399
College-Consevatory of Music		Email:  Michael.Wathen@UC.Edu
University of Cincinnati
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