Ear hairs, uptakes etc.....

Graham Breed, ( who knows more about this than I do.....) writes:



>I would question whether neurons can react at such high frequencies at
>all. I don't have experimental data to hand, but I remember evidence that
>low frequencies are perceived in a different way to high ones, probably
>because of this.
I have read that the potassium (or magnesium or something like them),
uptake requirements for a nerve cell to "reload" and fire again requires
enough time so that a single cell can only trigger 600 times a second. This
has repercussions when you are trying to transmit a 4,000 Hz signal over the
the ol' brain. I believe that the "volley theory" attempts to explain the
process by which multiple hairs share the task of transmitting an appropriate
signal.

>The usual mechanism suggested for high frequency perception is that each
>hair in the inner ear responds to vibrations of a particular frequency,
>plus their harmonics.

The harmonics would be registered in a different location along the Organ
of Corti, would they not? I mean, your ear doesn't necessarily know that
they are harmonics, does it? It is just a set of frequencies that are being
received.

>In the Mandelbrot set, though, there is a
>fairly large period 3 region.

I have been reading of the Mandelbrot sets for a long time, but there is no
one around to actually discuss this with, so I have a question: How do you
pronounce this name? is is Mandel Brot as in "rot" or Brot with a long "o"?
( excuse the small pocket of ignorance here, but I gotta know. )
Regards,
Ed Foote
Precision Piano Works
Nashaville, Tn.