Step variety: Difference between revisions

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Unary scales are [[equal tuning]]s. The class of binary scales consists of all [[MOS]] scales and every alteration-by-permutation of a MOS scale, but do not include altered MOS scales such as the harmonic minor scale, msmmsLs, which gain additional step sizes from the alteration. Ternary scales are much less well-understood than binary ones, but one well-studied type of ternary scales is the class of [[generator-offset]] scales. Most known facts about ternary scales on the wiki can be found on the page [[rank-3 scale]] (which is mostly about specifically ternary scales).
Unary scales are [[equal tuning]]s. The class of binary scales consists of all [[MOS]] scales and every alteration-by-permutation of a MOS scale, but do not include altered MOS scales such as the harmonic minor scale, msmmsLs, which gain additional step sizes from the alteration. Ternary scales are much less well-understood than binary ones, but one well-studied type of ternary scales is the class of [[generator-offset]] scales. Most known facts about ternary scales on the wiki can be found on the page [[rank-3 scale]] (which is mostly about specifically ternary scales).
== History of the term ==
== History of the term ==
The terms ''binary'' and ''ternary'' are already used in some academic literature in reference to words over an alphabet, in particular to circular words that represent abstract scales; see e.g. Bulgakova, Buzhinsky and Goncharov (2023), "[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304397522006417 On balanced and abelian properties of circular words over a ternary alphabet]". Though our use of the term ''arity'' borrows an [[w:Arity|existing technical term]] and generalizes from this use of ''binary'', ''ternary'', and ''n-ary'' to refer to the number of letters in an alphabet in combinatorics on words, standard academic usage prefers "word on ''n'' letters" or "alphabet with ''n'' letters" in the arbitrary-''n'' case.
The terms ''binary'' and ''ternary'' are already used in some academic literature in reference to words over an alphabet, in particular to circular words that represent abstract scales; see e.g. Bulgakova, Buzhinsky and Goncharov (2023), "[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304397522006417 On balanced and abelian properties of circular words over a ternary alphabet]". Though our use of the term ''arity'' borrows an {{w|Arity|existing technical term}} and generalizes from this use of ''binary'', ''ternary'', and ''n-ary'' to refer to the number of letters in an alphabet in combinatorics on words, standard academic usage prefers "word on ''n'' letters" or "alphabet with ''n'' letters" in the arbitrary-''n'' case.


== Difference from scale rank ==
== Difference from scale rank ==