Astrophysicist/colors/music

Hi Neil, Rich and Paul

As I ask questions to Dr. Lochner, they probably sound pretty
"basic" to all of you. Please be patient I'm not advanced as all of
you are in this field. I'm fairly new and still learning the basics.

My second conversation with Dr. Lochner

Wally said:

Hi Dr. Lochner

I was amazed by your response. Even though you say your not a
music expert - you probably are! Music is
all about numbers. You can ignore the musical letters that you
see in written music. Letters are used to simply
identify frequencies which make writing music down on paper
easier to understand.

I'm sure I can find what musical note 545 trillion c.p.s. is
equal to. But what will my answer mean?

Any audio frequency "doubled" is the same frequency as the
original only higher. In other words, an audio
frequency of 100 cps is also the same "sound" as a frequency of
200 cps. If I double 200 cps then 400 cps is
also the same sound as 200 cps (only higher). Likewise 100 cps,
200 cps, 400 cps, 800 cps, 1600 cps,
3200 cps etc. are all the same "sound" except they are at
different "pitches" (the highness and lowness of a
note).

As a result, let's say for example that "reduced", 545 trillion
cps (the color green) equals "x cps" (maybe you
can explain to me how to do this). If "x cps" equals an audible
frequency of 628 cycle per seconds. What
does it mean?

DOCTOR LOCHNER SAID:

On your calculator, just keep dividing the 545 trillion by 2 until you
get something in the audible range. (I think you have to divide by 2
about 40 times, and that will give you 495 cps.) I'm not sure what
it means, other than it's very high pitched.

WALLY SAID:

If I compose a piece of music using an audible frequency of 628
cps more often than not, will the listener have
a much more intense feeling about the color green as he stands
staring at a green wall?

DOCTOR LOCHNER SAID:

This is an interesting question, but I think that's more a function
of psychology and physiology. So I really don't know.

Hope this helps.

Jim

My Third conversation with Dr. Lochner

WALLY SAID:

Hi Dr. Lochner

Thanks for your time and for helping me with the frequency of
light waves. Could you please tell me
where/how you arrived at: "The frequency of green light is about
5.45 x 10^14 cps (that's 545 trillion cps).

Questions:
1) Where did the number 5.45 come from?

DOCTOR LOCHNER SAID:

To find the frequency, divide the speed of light by the
wavelength of the light you're interested in:

frequency = (speed of light) / wavelength.

The speed of light is 3x10^8 meters/second. This is always
the same. The wavelength of green light is about 5.5x10^-7 meters.
So for green

frequency = (3 x 10^8) / (5.5 x 10^-7)
frequency = 5.45 x 10^14 cycles per second

WALLY SAID:

2) Excuse my lack of Keyboard terminology but is 10^14 equal to
10 to the 14th power? If so then 10^14
equals one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) ??

DOCTOR LOCHNER SAID:

Correct: 10^14 means 10 to the 14th. However, you need 14 zeroes to
get to 100 trilliion: 100,000,000,000,000.
Also, 5.5x10^-7 = 0.00000055

WALLY SAID:

3) Is there a web site that you can recommend to me which
explains what the frequencies (c.p.s.) are for the
visible colors in the electromagnetic spectrum? (besides green)

DOCTOR LOCHNER SAID:

Off-hand, I don't know of any. But just for your reference, red light
has a wavelength of about 6.5x10^-7 meters, yellow light about
6.0x10^-7
meters, and violet light about 4.0x10^-7 meters.

Jim END-END-END

I hope this helped everyone in the tuning group

Thanks
Wally

Wally wrote,

>Can there be any relation at all between Color
>frequencies and audible frequencies when they are the "same frequency
>yet many octaves apart??

I hope my three points were clear in explaining why there is not. Dr.
Lochner is correct that this is a matter of psychology and physiology, not
merely mathematics.