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"All FORKS sound alike" questioning the tuning of the Internet

Starship Krupa

By Starship Krupa
in The Coffee House

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JohnG

JohnG

Posted
Posted (edited)

And the really, really pathetically ridiculous thing about this premise is that it's based on Hz.

Ever asked yourself "what really is Hertz?"

A. Simple, it's cycles per second.

Q.What exactly is a second?

A. Well, it's a sixtieth of a minute.

Q. What's a minute?

A. A sixtieth of an hour.

Q. What's an hour?

A. A twenty-fourth of a day.

Q. But why 24? Why not, for example, ten hours in a day, 100 minutes in an hour and a hundred seconds in a minute? Wouldn't that be more logical?

Q. Why 24, 60 , 60? It makes no sense.

Lets change to 10, 100, 100. New hours, new minutes and new seconds. Then Hz changes; the speed of light changes (or, rather, the way we measure it, and so on.

The second is just some arbitrary way that humans decided to measure time, who knows how long ago. It's not a fixed cosmological constant.

Why 360 degrees in a circle. Why not 100 degrees in a right angle then a circle would be 400 degrees.

My children asked me these questions around 30 years ago.

Any thoughts?

Edited by JohnG
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Grem

Grem

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, JohnG said:

some arbitrary way that humans decided to measure time, who knows how long ago. It's not a fixed cosmological constant.

Exactly! But the way that we interpret the 12 tone system is just so pleasing, soothing, dramatic.... So I am sticking with it! 

I was trying to explain to my wife (who plays piano) about the 14 notes in an octave and her head would just not wrap itself around that concept. It took me to go the the piano, show her an octave, then explain that the 14 notes are within that octave. You should have seen the look on her face!! Priceless!!! : )

First thing she said was "Then it would all be out of tune!"

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antler

antler

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, JohnG said:

Q.What exactly is a second?

...

The second is just some arbitrary way that humans decided to measure time, who knows how long ago. It's not a fixed cosmological constant.

According to Wikipedia,

Quote

Although the historical definition of the unit was based on this division of the Earth's rotation cycle, the formal definition in the International System of Units (SI) is a much steadier timekeeper: it is defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the caesium frequency ∆νCs, the unperturbed ground-state hyperfine transition frequency of the caesium-133 atom, to be 9192631770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is equal to s−1.

so while it used to be arbitrary, it is now a fixed constant (which I guess was derived from an arbitrary unit)

4 hours ago, JohnG said:

Q. But why 24? Why not, for example, ten hours in a day, 100 minutes in an hour and a hundred seconds in a minute? Wouldn't that be more logical?

According to this article, it's related to ancient Egyptian astronomy

https://www.rd.com/article/24-hours-in-a-day/

As we've mostly become accustomed to a base-10 numerical system, time intervals might be seem easier to calculate; I wouldn't necessarily say that a base-10 time system is more logical though.

4 hours ago, JohnG said:

Why 360 degrees in a circle. Why not 100 degrees in a right angle then a circle would be 400 degrees.

According to this article, it's related to Babylonian astronomy

https://news.yahoo.com/why-360-degrees-circle-heres-174537726.html

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JohnG

JohnG

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Grem said:

Exactly! But the way that we interpret the 12 tone system is just so pleasing, soothing, dramatic.... So I am sticking with it! 

I was trying to explain to my wife (who plays piano) about the 14 notes in an octave and her head would just not wrap itself around that concept. It took me to go the the piano, show her an octave, then explain that the 14 notes are within that octave. You should have seen the look on her face!! Priceless!!! : )

First thing she said was "Then it would all be out of tune!"

Tell her the octaves are in tune. 2:1 and major fifths are almost in tune.

But the thirds are awful in E.T.

 

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JohnG

JohnG

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, antler said:

According to Wikipedia,

so while it used to be arbitrary, it is now a fixed constant (which I guess was derived from an arbitrary unit)

According to this article, it's related to ancient Egyptian astronomy

https://www.rd.com/article/24-hours-in-a-day/

As we've mostly become accustomed to a base-10 numerical system, time intervals might be seem easier to calculate; I wouldn't necessarily say that a base-10 time system is more logical though.

According to this article, it's related to Babylonian astronomy

https://news.yahoo.com/why-360-degrees-circle-heres-174537726.html

Here in the UK we seem to have lost pounds and ounces and inches, feet and yards and pennies and shillings for a simplified 'more logical' system.

I much preferred the old way.

But then I like minims, crotchets and quavers too.

Part of a dying breed I suppose. Oh well!

 

Just been reading about Göbekli Tepe. I wonder how they measured things all those years ago?

Edited by JohnG
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craigb

craigb

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, JohnG said:

And the really, really pathetically ridiculous thing about this premise is that it's based on Hz.

Ever asked yourself "what really is Hertz?"

A. Simple, it's cycles per second.

Q.What exactly is a second?

A. Well, it's a sixtieth of a minute.

Q. What's a minute?

A. A sixtieth of an hour.

Q. What's an hour?

A. A twenty-fourth of a day.

Q. But why 24? Why not, for example, ten hours in a day, 100 minutes in an hour and a hundred seconds in a minute? Wouldn't that be more logical?

Q. Why 24, 60 , 60? It makes no sense.

Lets change to 10, 100, 100. New hours, new minutes and new seconds. Then Hz changes; the speed of light changes (or, rather, the way we measure it, and so on.

The second is just some arbitrary way that humans decided to measure time, who knows how long ago. It's not a fixed cosmological constant.

Why 360 degrees in a circle. Why not 100 degrees in a right angle then a circle would be 400 degrees.

My children asked me these questions around 30 years ago.

Any thoughts?

This all becomes rather simple once you start basing everything off of Euler's constant and Pi.  ?

 

Euler-Identity1.png

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ensconced

ensconced

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, craigb said:

This all becomes rather simple once you start basing everything off of Euler's constant and Pi.  ?

 

But I've always based everything  off of Bueller's constant

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Ferris-Bueller-Matthew-Broderick.jpg?q=5

 

and Pi . . . mmmmmm Pi . . .

 

1382545039107.jpeg

 

 

Edited by ensconced
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paulo

paulo

Posted
Posted

 

On 8/2/2020 at 11:27 AM, JohnG said:

Q. But why 24? Why not, for example, ten hours in a day, 100 minutes in an hour and a hundred seconds in a minute? Wouldn't that be more logical?

Q. Why 24, 60 , 60? It makes no sense.

 

On 8/2/2020 at 5:42 PM, JohnG said:

Here in the UK we seem to have lost pounds and ounces and inches, feet and yards and pennies and shillings for a simplified 'more logical' system.

I much preferred the old way.

 

How to win an argument 101: Argue with yourself.

?

 

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