Domain basis: Difference between revisions

Cmloegcmluin (talk | contribs)
consistent hyphenation of "prime-count vector"
Cmloegcmluin (talk | contribs)
I've asked for the clutter of pages of different forms for the words defactor and enfactor to be deleted, so now pages that linked to them need to be updated to use the remaining working link
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== Vs. canonical form for temperaments themselves: do not defactor ==
== Vs. canonical form for temperaments themselves: do not defactor ==


There's an important difference between the canonical form of comma bases and mappings and the canonical form of interval bases. With the former, it's typical to fully [[defactor]] them as well as [[normal form|normalize]] them, because [[The_pathology_of_enfactoring|enfactored representations of temperaments are pathological]]. Enfactored interval bases, however, are ''not'' pathological; they represent meaningfully distinct interval bases.<ref>Here's a key difference between an enfactored comma basis and an enfactored interval basis, by example. 2-enfactored meantone is {{bra|{{vector|-8 8 -2}}}}, representing a [[temperoid]] where somehow 6561/6400 = (81/80)² is tempered out but 81/80 is not, a situation which is musically absurd, and this is the crux of why comma basis enfactoring is pathological. We can achieve a similar but non-pathological situation with a nonstandard interval basis. In the 2.3.25 interval basis, the comma basis {{bra|{{vector|-8 8 1}}}} represents the temperament where 6561/6400 is tempered out. But this isn't absurd, because the temperament doesn't explicitly say that 81/80 is ''not'' tempered out. In this temperament, 81/80 doesn't even exist! The page [[Sane and insane temperaments]] contains some more discussion of ideas in this vicinity.</ref>
There's an important difference between the canonical form of comma bases and mappings and the canonical form of interval bases. With the former, it's typical to fully [[defactoring|defactor]] them as well as [[normal form|normalize]] them, because [[The_pathology_of_enfactoring|enfactored representations of temperaments are pathological]]. Enfactored interval bases, however, are ''not'' pathological; they represent meaningfully distinct interval bases.<ref>Here's a key difference between an enfactored comma basis and an enfactored interval basis, by example. 2-enfactored meantone is {{bra|{{vector|-8 8 -2}}}}, representing a [[temperoid]] where somehow 6561/6400 = (81/80)² is tempered out but 81/80 is not, a situation which is musically absurd, and this is the crux of why comma basis enfactoring is pathological. We can achieve a similar but non-pathological situation with a nonstandard interval basis. In the 2.3.25 interval basis, the comma basis {{bra|{{vector|-8 8 1}}}} represents the temperament where 6561/6400 is tempered out. But this isn't absurd, because the temperament doesn't explicitly say that 81/80 is ''not'' tempered out. In this temperament, 81/80 doesn't even exist! The page [[Sane and insane temperaments]] contains some more discussion of ideas in this vicinity.</ref>


For example, if we were to defactor the 2.9.5 interval basis, we'd get 2.3.5. But 2.9.5 is a perfectly reasonable interval basis that we don't wish to conflate with 2.3.5<ref>Even 4.9.25 is an acceptable interval basis. It's not a special situation where there's a common factor in the powers on each formal prime, which in this case is 2.</ref>.  
For example, if we were to defactor the 2.9.5 interval basis, we'd get 2.3.5. But 2.9.5 is a perfectly reasonable interval basis that we don't wish to conflate with 2.3.5<ref>Even 4.9.25 is an acceptable interval basis. It's not a special situation where there's a common factor in the powers on each formal prime, which in this case is 2.</ref>.