Mean free path: Difference between revisions

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If humans could hear to the mean free path limit, this would limit our perception range to <math>\frac{5\cdot10^9 \ln{2}}{16}</math> or about '''216 million-EDO'''. This corresponds to a step size of about 5.5 x 10<sup>-6</sup> cents, which is roughly the size of the [[Unnoticeable comma|unnoticeable]] rascal comma, [-7470 2791 1312⟩. Playing in a temperament which makes a distinction for intervals this small is physically impossible without beating interference on all notes.

~~This being said~~, ~~the "chunky" nature of real gases~~ will ~~cause problems well before~~ the ~~sound~~ wavelength ~~will attain mean~~ free path.

However, higher-pitched sounds will get heavily attenuated the closer their wavelength gets to free path. When the sounds attain levels of just several MHz, some estimate they will fail to travel through the air longer than a few centimeters.

In small-atom solids such as dense metals, the sound can travel at much higher frequencies due to both higher sound speed and the periodicity and strength of the lattice. Theoretically, an alien civilization with their "ears" designed to hear through solids rather than gases would be able to make music with these higher frequencies, and perceive intervals as distinct instead of "wahwah".

[[Category:Extreme]]

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 If humans could hear to the mean free path limit, this would limit our perception range to <math>\frac{5\cdot10^9 \ln{2}}{16}</math> or about '''216 million-EDO'''. This corresponds to a step size of about 5.5 x 10<sup>-6</sup> cents, which is roughly the size of the [[Unnoticeable comma|unnoticeable]] rascal comma, [-7470 2791 1312⟩. Playing in a temperament which makes a distinction for intervals this small is physically impossible without beating interference on all notes.
-This being said, the "chunky" nature of real gases will cause problems well before the sound wavelength will attain mean free path.
+However, higher-pitched sounds will get heavily attenuated the closer their wavelength gets to free path. When the sounds attain levels of just several MHz, some estimate they will fail to travel through the air longer than a few centimeters.
 In small-atom solids such as dense metals, the sound can travel at much higher frequencies due to both higher sound speed and the periodicity and strength of the lattice. Theoretically, an alien civilization with their "ears" designed to hear through solids rather than gases would be able to make music with these higher frequencies, and perceive intervals as distinct instead of "wahwah".
 [[Category:Extreme]]