The significance of zero as the absence of value

My world view Keenan? Is it because I state the acknowledged fact that zero
denotes the lack of whatever it is you count?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keenan Pepper" <keenanpepper@gmail.com>
To: <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 02 Mart 2006 Per�embe 19:37
Subject: Re: [tuning] Re: unison as an interval

> On 3/2/06, Hudson Lacerda <hfmlacerda@yahoo.com.br> wrote:
> > > What? That's a fallacious statement. Dividing by zero is an illegal
> > > operation. Even the simplest calculator will validate me, just run
your
> > > windows calculator and divide any number by 0 and see what I mean,
unless of
> > > course you are dividing zero by zero, which yields a result the
function of
> > > which is undefined.
> >
> > The first software piece I tried gave me a different result... Why?
> >
> > octave:1> 1/0
> > warning: division by zero
> > ans = Inf
> > octave:2> 0/0
> > warning: division by zero
> > ans = NaN
> >
> > Anyway, considering the perfect prime or unisson as an interval -- even
> > if one can put its status under question -- is an useful thing.
> >
> > Bye,
> > Hudson
>
> This is getting really off topic, but there's something seriously
> wrong with your world view if you depend on a calculator as your
> source of mathematical truth. I had a calculator (a TI-89) that would
> print an infinity sign when you told it to evaluate 10^1000.
>
> Keenan
>
>

Perhaps the increasing use of Zero is a factor in the computer dominated modern age?

1/1 is an interval, as it represents the relation between two tones of equal pitch. We are representing these pitches as frequencies so we relate them by ratio.

The frequency difference between two pitches of equal frequency is zero.

Thus both views are true.

1/1 is a symbol and is not meant to be the fraction 1 over 1. It represents a relationship between the over number and the under number surely?

we can of course take the logarithm of our ratio...

and the log of 1 is always zero...

Mark

On 3/3/06, Mark Gould <mark@equiton.waitrose.com> wrote:
> Perhaps the increasing use of Zero is a factor in the computer
> dominated modern age?
>
> 1/1 is an interval, as it represents the relation between two tones of
> equal pitch. We are representing these pitches as frequencies so we
> relate them by ratio.
[...]

Keep it in the same thread, please, or ideally move it to metatuning
or whatever.

Keenan