Val: Difference between revisions

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this "Mathematical definition" seems to restate fairly trivial information in a verbose and technical way. the only real information given is linearity, which is already mentioned elsewhere
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Furthermore, there is actually a lot of applications of vals and monzos that are not necessarily about approximating things in edos or even regular temperaments for that matter, discussed in [[#Applications]], though all of them do still use the idea of the ''mapping'' provided by the val, so really, a val is a ''mapping'' from JI to the numbers with certain properties.
Furthermore, there is actually a lot of applications of vals and monzos that are not necessarily about approximating things in edos or even regular temperaments for that matter, discussed in [[#Applications]], though all of them do still use the idea of the ''mapping'' provided by the val, so really, a val is a ''mapping'' from JI to the numbers with certain properties.
== Mathematical definition ==
Mathematically, a val is a type of function that inputs a {{w|rational number}} (ratio) and outputs a number of steps that represents what interval of the edo we use to approximate that frequency ratio. If ''a''/''b'' is our ratio and ''k'' is the output of the function, then the interval* of ''N''-edo is 2<sup>''k''/''N''</sup> if we assume a pure octave tuning which is often written with the backslash notation.
It is not just any such function though; it is a function with a special property called {{w|linearity}} that allows our arithmetic to be internally consistent (having an internal logic) in the way described above; here ''internally consistent'' is meant in the English sense, so should not be confused with [[consistency]] in the aforediscussed technical sense. The most obvious use of a val (the one discussed in the example) is to algorithmically determine JI interpretations of intervals in edo, which is called using the edo as an equal temperament or rank-1 temperament, where ''rank-1'' means that it corresponds to a 1-dimensional grid of notes related by the same (usually {{w|irrational number|irrational}}) frequency ratios.
Also note that in practice vals are ''very far'' from just any list of positive integers; rather, they are generally equal to or one off from the lists of integers that correspond to a ''patent val''.


== Patent val and generalized patent val ==
== Patent val and generalized patent val ==
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