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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 12/03/2003 :  09:28:44  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
....exactly what are the qualifications of the investigators covering this incredable break-through, and what exactly did their 5 months of 'study' reveal. Otherwise, it's, "Heigh-ho and away! Here we go again!"

quote:
FAIRFIELD, CA - A five-month study has concluded that the mysterious crop circles that appeared in a Solano County wheat field in June were not the work of four teenage boys who claimed they made them as a hoax.



http://www.vallejonews.com/articles/index.cfm?artOID=153490&cp=60

Of further intrest is the comments to the article. My eyes are still rolling.




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend

Sweden
9687 Posts

Posted - 12/03/2003 :  10:08:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Dr. Mabuse an ICQ Message Send Dr. Mabuse a Private Message


What can I say? They must have seen Signs too many times while smoking not-tobaco.

Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3

"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse

Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 12/03/2003 :  10:35:34   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
I didn't have time to read it all, but Psi Applications has published their report here. Aside from stupid HTML gimmicks and difficult (if not impossible) to read text in places, there are other problems with the report:

The summary indicates that the "Rockville-1" (R1) formation was 300 feet long, with circles between 13' and 140' in diameter. The R1 detail clearly shows that the formation was 429' long, with circles ranging from 12' to 147'.

The summary also claims that the "Vacaville" (V-1) formation was 569' long, with "2-86' 'antennae" [sic], and calls the design an "insecticide pictogram." Similarly to the R-1 problems, the V-1 detail describes the formation as being 556' long, with one 86' antenna, and one 60' antenna. The V-1 detail calls the design an "insectoid pictogram."

The bad formatting, crappy graphics (MS Paint?), and overall sloppiness of this report indicates something about the "character" of the investigators. If the final report is so sloppy, then so, too, may have been the investigation.

And apparently, while in the middle of the cornfield during the V-1 investigation, the irrigation system came on, flooding much of the formation and making it difficult for the investigators to get back to their vehicles. Did they not tell the owner of the crops that they would be there? If not, the easiest explanation for the V-1 formation is the owner created it, and carted off most of the "missing" corn, as well.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
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PruplePanther
Skeptic Friend

USA
79 Posts

Posted - 12/03/2003 :  14:49:52   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send PruplePanther a Private Message
Was about to make some clever joke but the more i read PsiApplications report that Dave linked the more serious the crop circle stuff started to look. Theze guys are no dr. Weil from U. of Arizona publishing goop for gullible females. Try this from gaiaguys.net
quote:


Originally posted at http://www.gaiaguys.net/Field_Forms_1999.htm

"Each stalk of wheat, or other crop, is individually softened and bent without killing the plant, or in any other way harming it, except for a local disturbance of the chromosomal material at a microscopic level. This is produced by a process unknown to terrestrial technology, which leaves a small dose of short half-life radioactivity behind."


HEAVY stuff if true. I've never been able to do that with any stalk i've bent. Now i admit that the web page that has this quote begins with "Click here to learn more about our planet's current extraterrestrial presence." Not designed to inspire confidence....or wouldn't if i didn't suspect that they might be right. Have not yet "cliked here" but may give it a try.

but back to the crop circles from Dave's link. Under "ROCKVILLE 1" is a folder called "Dr. aubrun's geometry analysis" with its own link to http://www.gaiaguys.net/ffgeom.htm and a Science News Online article from October 12, 1996. I haven't followed this up to SciNewsOnline but i HAVE seen crop circle stuff in the paper version of Science News. Until now i have always skipped such articles with a sneering chuckle but the stuff at http://psiapplications.com/Treepad/index.html has me thinking.

So unless this is some sort of huge and ELABORATE hoax it is FOOD for thought and as everyone knows

    "Ya Gotta EAT"

"If I don't know where we are, I can't plot a course home." Major Carter, SG-1
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 12/03/2003 :  18:32:44   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
PruplePanther wrote:
quote:
Theze guys are no dr. Weil from U. of Arizona publishing goop for gullible females.
No, they appear to be publishing goop for gullible males.
quote:
Originally posted at http://www.gaiaguys.net/Field_Forms_1999.htm

"Each stalk of wheat, or other crop, is individually softened and bent without killing the plant, or in any other way harming it, except for a local disturbance of the chromosomal material at a microscopic level. This is produced by a process unknown to terrestrial technology, which leaves a small dose of short half-life radioactivity behind."
When they offer up evidence for this assertion, verified by at least two independent and reputable labs, I'll think about believing it. All of the "gaiaguys" info on crop circles seems to indicate nothing more than a desire to claim that humans are really, really stupid, and that the ETs are very smart. However, all it really demonstrates is that the people who make crop circles are craftier than the people who waste time "investigating" them.
quote:
So unless this is some sort of huge and ELABORATE hoax...
No, it's a whole lot of individual hoaxes. The only people who think that all these circles are tied together in some sort of "holistic" web are those who want to believe that aliens are visiting the Earth. Each new crop circle, no matter how ordinary a figure to graphic artists and/or computer number-crunchers (Mandelbrot themes show up a lot), adds to the wet dream that incredibly wise ETs are either coming to kill us or save us. For example, from the "Mathematics" article:
quote:
"These designs demonstrate the remarkable mathematical ability of their creators," Hawkins comments.
Hawkins is an idiot. The designs demonstrate the ability of people (often college kids) to crack open a geometry textbook, and copy the things they see there into a wheat field. Nothing more. The fact that Hawkins thinks that the creators of the circles are "demonstrating theorems," instead of Hawkins finding theorems based on the figures, shows that he's ignorant of a great many "logical fallacies" which affect both hobos and PhDs.

Until they cough up the real hard evidence which shows that there really is radiation damage to wheat chromosomes (local to the nodes), and/or that normal wheat cannot grow after it's been cut, this stuff really is desering of nothing but a "sneering chuckle."

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 12/04/2003 :  04:18:13   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
(chuckle, sneer)

What I'd like to know is exactly what these ships are thought to be doing out there in the north forty. I hear of crop circles, but no statements of any sort of activity -- forget hard evidence of activity, there is none that anybody seems to have heard of. Do they simply land, then just sit around inside the ship choking their chickens, or what?

Why is it that so many otherwise sensable people so eagerly buy this and other nonsense, even after the perpetrators of the hoax come forward and tell the world that they gone and done it, and it was fun? The Bigfoot chronicles is another, prime example of this silliness. The really sad part is that these things don't even make much of an entertaining story, something I blame on the pathetic hacks that write about them. Of course, pathetic hacks have to eat too, but honesty, can't they find something better than this?

Oh wait! This morning, I found a human-looking footprint down by the pond that was almost 20 inches long. There was a crushed trilobite in it! I must call, not Duke University, but the Raleigh Daily Blather at once!

A pity that we don't have a rolling eyes smilely.


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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furshur
SFN Regular

USA
1536 Posts

Posted - 12/04/2003 :  09:27:05   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send furshur a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted at http://www.gaiaguys.net/Field_Forms_1999.htm

"Each stalk of wheat, or other crop, is individually softened and bent without killing the plant, or in any other way harming it, except for a local disturbance of the chromosomal material at a microscopic level. This is produced by a process unknown to terrestrial technology, which leaves a small dose of short half-life radioactivity behind."


Each stalk is individually soften and bent. Ummm, no it is not. If you take a board and smash down the wheat it will bend over. You don't need science fiction to do this. Bending the wheat stalk will not kill the plant - no surprise here. There is no 'disturbance' of the chromosomes. What the hell is 'disturbance' - my guess is it can only be detected by dowsing techniques. The short lived radioactivity is so short lived that it has decayed by the time instruments are brought in.

Jeez, this is so stupid. If there are actually aliens doing this it would have to be the morons from that movie SIGNS. Has anyone seen that movie, I watched that and laughed my head off. The aliens invaded earth in intersteller craft but could not figure out how to get through a locked door. The aliens had super-human strength - they could jump 15 feet in the air and take a baseball bat to the head with almost no effect, but could not knock down a door.
The best part though is that water burns their skin like very strong acid. So what do these moron aliens do - they run around naked. I mean come on Einstien, put on a freaking raincoat. All night long the aliens are running around in fields making these signs and all the time the dew is burning the crap out of them. So I suppose you will know an invasion is coming when the farmers start hearing cries of, "Doh, OWWWW, EEEK, Doh" in their fields at night.

If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know.
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Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 12/04/2003 :  09:29:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message
There has been a lot written about Crop Circles. I think it's important to realize that the original crop circle makers in North England admitted to the hoax. And yet...

Here is an article by Joe Nickel of CSICOP. He is their lead investigator.

http://www.csicop.org/si/2002-09/crop-circles.html

quote:
From the above article:
Investigation into the circles mystery indicated that it might be profitable to look not just at individual formations but at the overall phenomenon (rather on the old principle that one may fail to see the forest for the trees). Forensic analyst John F. Fischer and I soon identified several characteristics that suggested the work of hoaxers (Nickell and Fischer 1992):

An Escalation in Frequency. Although there were sporadic reports of simple circles in earlier times and in various countries (possibly as UFO-landing-spot hoaxes), the classic crop circles began to be reported by the mid 1970s. Data on the circles showed that their number increased annually from 1981-1987, an escalation that seemed to correlate with media coverage of the phenomenon. In fact it appeared that the coverage helped prompt further hoaxes.

Geographic Distribution. The phenomenon showed a decided predilection for a limited geographic area, flourishing in southern England-in Hampshire, Wiltshire, and nearby counties. It was there that the circles effect captured the world's attention. And, just as the number of circles increased, so their locations spread. After newspaper and television reports on the phenomenon began to increase in the latter 1980s, the formations began to crop up (so to speak) in significant numbers around the world. Indeed the circles effect appeared to be a media-borne "virus."

Increase in Complexity. A very important characteristic of the patterned-crops phenomenon was the tendency of the configurations to become increasingly elaborate over time. They progressed from simple swirled circles to circles with rings and satellites, to still more complex patterns. In 1987 came a crop message, "WEARENOTALONE" (although skeptics observed that, if the source were indeed English-speaking extraterrestrials, the message should have read "You" rather than "We"). In 1990 came still more complex patterns, dubbed "pictograms." There were also free-form shapes (e.g., a "tadpole"-like design), a witty crop triangle, and the hilarious bicycle (see Hoggart and Hutchinson 1995, 59).

There also appeared beautifully interlinked spirals, a Menorah, intricate "snowflake" and stylized "spider web" designs, elaborate "Torus Knot" and "Mandala" emblems, pentagram and floral patterns, and other distinctive formations, including an "Origami Hexagram" and several fractals (mathematical designs with a motif subjected to repeated subdivision)-all consistent with the intelligence of modern homo sapiens. At the end of the decade came many designs that included decidedly square and rectilinear shapes, seeming to represent a wry response to the hypothesized swirling "vortex" mechanism.

The Shyness Factor. A fourth characteristic of the cropfield phenomenon is its avoidance of being observed in action. It is largely nocturnal, and the designs even appear to specifically resist being seen, as shown by Operation White Crow. That was an eight-night vigil maintained by about sixty cereologists in June 1989. Not only did no circles appear in the field chosen for surveillance but-although there had already been almost a hundred formations that summer, with yet another 170 or so to occur-not a single circle was reported during the period anywhere in England. Then a large circle-and-ring formation was discovered about 500 yards away on the very next day!

These and other characteristics are entirely consistent with the work of hoaxers. Indeed, as John Fischer and I were about to go to press with our investigative report, in September 1991 two "jovial con men in their sixties" confessed they had been responsible for many of the crop formations made over the years. In support of their claim the men, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley, fooled cereologist Pat Delgado. He declared a pattern they had produced for a tabloid to be authentic, insisting it was of a type no hoaxer could have made. The pair utilized a rope-and-plank device to flatten the plants, demonstrating their technique for television crews, e.g., on ABC-TV's Good Morning America on September 10, 1991 (Nickell and Fischer 1992, 145-148).

Cereologists were forced to concede that hoaxers were producing elaborate designs and that "there are many ways to make a hoaxed crop circle" (Haselhoff 2001, 34). (For example, some who go 'round in circles use a garden roller to flatten the plants [Hoggart and Hutchinson 1995].) While in the past some cereologists thought they could distinguish "real" from fake circles by dowsing (Nickell 1995), the more cautious now admit it is not an easy matter, "certainly not as long as we do not even know exactly what mechanism creates crop circles" (Haselhoff 2001, 34).

I suggest reading the whole article.

In general, do not trust psi or ufo investigators who profess a prior belief in what they are investigating, and then publish in UFO magazines or offer press releases to the media about the "findings" of their investigations. The media eats this crap up. When these "findings" are offered up for peer review in "Science" or "Nature" I might be inclined to pay more attention to their claims.
Don't hold your breath for that to happen...








Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 12/04/2003 :  12:52:06   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
Gets better 'n better.....

quote:
Two weeks -- and hundreds of souvenir T-shirts -- later, four unnamed teenage boys 'fessed up, saying they cut the circles as a hoax because, well, it's boring in Fairfield and "there's nothing else to do around here," as one put it. Even though the Solano County district attorney didn't buy their confession, the story disappeared with the harvest.

On Wednesday the crop circle mystery reignited, as a team of paranormal investigators concluded after conducting a five-month investigation that the "hoax is a hoax."



What these turkeys fail to take into account is just how creative a bored teenager can be. They've never been a single parent of any, obviously.


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 12/04/2003 :  13:17:09   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Filthy wrote:
quote:
What these turkeys fail to take into account is just how creative a bored teenager can be.
Hence my comments about how they're trying to prove that humans are stupid. It's much the same argument that people make when they claim that the ancient Egyptians couldn't possibly have built the pyramids without help.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 12/04/2003 :  15:01:31   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
I forgot to post the link!


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/04/BAGAJ3FJ931.DTL


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 12/04/2003 :  21:26:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Filthy linked: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/04/BAGAJ3FJ931.DTL

Well, that answers part of the question you asked in the OP:
quote:
Led and funded by Fairfield resident Steve Moreno, a kitchen contractor who became devoted to exploring the paranormal after a near-death car wreck 20 years ago...
But wait, there's more:
quote:
"The level of sophistication was quite high and I don't think high school students could have done it -- especially considering the state of education these days," said Jean-Noel Aubrun, a former NASA engineer who has a doctorate in physics.
I was unaware that having a PhD in physics gave you the education to be able to tell how good high-school kids could be at stomping down wheat.

After "analyzing" the ratios of the circles, Dr. Aubrun said:
quote:
"...it was like the scale of F," he said.
Um, if I'm not mistaken, the ratio between two notes in any, say, major scale is going to be identical no matter which key its in. Ratios do not specify notes nor octaves. This person is a loon.

Actually, let's go in-depth on this one:

The circle diameters as marked in the detail of the R1 formation are as follows: 12', 18', 20', 22', 28', 32', 65', 66' and 147'.

If we, like Dr. Aubrun did, call the smallest circle an F (I'll pick the F at 349.23 Hz), then...
  • 18' is a ratio of 3/2, or 523.85 Hz
  • 20' = 5/3, 582.05 Hz
  • 22' = 11/6, 640.26 Hz
  • 28' = 7/3, 814.87 Hz
  • 32' = 8/3, 931.28 Hz
  • 65' = 65/12, 1891.66 Hz
  • 66' = 11/2, 1920.77 Hz
  • 147' = 49/4, 4103.45 Hz
Big deal so far, what are these notes?
  • 523.85 Hz is just slightly higher than 523.25 Hz, the C above the base F note
  • 582.05 Hz is just about 84% of difference between 554.36 Hz and 587.32 Hz, or the C# and D above the F
  • 640.26 Hz is halfway between the D# and the E above the F
  • 814.87 Hz is 66% of the way between the G and G# an octave above the F
  • 931.28 Hz is just 2% shy of the A# that is 17 semitones above the F
  • 1891.66 Hz is 24% between the A# and B another octave above the last
  • 1920.77 Hz is 51% between the same A# and B
  • 4103.45 Hz is 65% between the B and C 42 semitones above the base F
While I'd be willing to grant the F (by "definition"), the C above it, and the A an octave above that, the other six notes here will sound very much atonal compared to those three. And, since the scales are built with a twelth-root-of-two ratio between semitones, it doesn't matter if you start at F or any other note, the results which fall between two notes will still fall between two other notes. The absolute numbers don't matter, only the ratios do, and only a third of the ratios match a nice normal scale.

So, how did Dr. Aubrun get things to match so well that he could "play" the circles? According to him,
quote:
Since neither photos nor ground measurements are accurate enough to assemble a perfect geometry model, these inputs were used to build a computer model representing some best fit of the data.
In other words, he fudged the data to force it to fit. In fact, in his conclusion, he wrote:
quote:
However, the “execution” on the ground of the intended geometry appears to have been poorly carried out, a feature that does not sit well with the idea of some advanced technology being involved.
The sheer arrogance displayed in this sentence, that he knows what the "intended geometry" was, is mind boggling.

But back to Filthy's linked article:
quote:
Miley said that no matter where such a microwave blast came from -- the atmosphere, UFOs, military weapons testers -- the possibility should inspire more investigation.
Yeah, and they should also look for evidence that small things had been cooked. Geez.
quote:
The team hopes to have its studies peer-reviewed, as a skeptical public scratches its collective head.
Well, this skeptic is only scratching his head because his psoriasis is acting up a bit.
quote:
"I'm a Fairfield native, and if it was a bunch of high school kids, I'm ticked," said Freddy Engell, a 44-year-old roofer. "Because I wish we would have thought of it when we were in high school. It's hilarious.
Finally, a voice of reason.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
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Why not question something for a change?
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 12/05/2003 :  09:12:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
Fun, ain't it? I love these things; so preposterous!

Well, it's coming on the time for getting up the planning stage of our '04 April Fool's gag. We, the grandthugs and I, considered some variation on crop circles last year, but shined it on as too 'been-there-done-that' (not to mention the labor involved). We might reconsider it. If I can get one of my farmer neighbors to join the conspiricy, and there's a couple of them that would probably be delighted to lay a huge bamboozle upon Granville County, it might be a go. Gotta discuss it. Last year was pretty uninspired, I thought. But, we already had a shed from a 5.5 foot Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (named Tammy Faye), so we went with it. I must admit, the reaction was satisfying. I actually got a call to please come and find this fucking snake!!




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 12/05/2003 :  09:55:46   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
One more time....

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">




UFO team reaches conclusion on crop circles

By Catherine Moy, Reporter, Vacaville

A Fairfield home-repair contractor who is also a UFO buff spent five months investigating whether four teenage boys could have made the Suisun Valley crop circles that popped up in June.

The crop circles set off a countywide debate and a sideshow of alien fans, skeptics and souvenir T-shirts. The UFO buff's conclusion: The boys didn't do it.

The boys' reply: We did it and we'll do it again.

[/quote]
http://www.timesheraldonline.com/articles/2003/12/05/news/news10.txt

Looking forward to the sequel.

Edited to add the link.


"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

Edited by - filthy on 12/05/2003 09:58:51
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ktesibios
SFN Regular

USA
505 Posts

Posted - 12/05/2003 :  22:09:57   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send ktesibios a Private Message
Relating to the part of Dave W.'s post about the musical intervals- I oughta point out that the scale built on the 12th root of 2 is a fairly recent invention.

The advantage of this "equally tempered" scale is that it permits an instrument like a piano to play in different keys without needing retuning- whatever key you choose, your instrument will be equally out of tune in all of them.

Intervals based on ratios of small integers form the "justly tempered" scale. Pitch (or, more accurately, fundamental frequency) ratios in the justly tmepered scale line up like this:

2:1 octave
3:2 perfect fifth
4:3 perfect fourth
5:3 major sixth
5:4 major third
6:5 minor third

Pythagoras worked out some of these relationships waaay back in the day.

The equally tempered scale approximates these ratios. For example, in the equally tempered scale a perfect fifth is 7 half-steps, or ((12rt(2))^7, which works out to approximately 1.49831- almost but not quite 3/2.

Generally, the smaller the numbers in the ratio, the more consonant the interval is perceived to be, e.g, the most consonant interval save the ocatve, the prefect fifth, comes in at 3:2, while an augmented fifth, which is much more dissonant, has a frequency ratio of 25:16.

The big trouble with just intonation is that if you tune, say, a piano to produce a perfectly just scale in the key of C major and then try to play an F major scale it will be way out of tune. In the case of fretted string instruments or woodwinds, where the ratios are built into the physical structure of the instrument itself, things get even uglier.

You can demonstrate this by tuning a guitar by ear so that the E major chord at the bottom of the neck sounds absolutely perfect to you- which means that you've probably tuned it so that the intervals between the strings, fretted in that pattern, are justly tempered. Now play the G major or D major chords at the bottom of the neck and see how good they sound...

Of course, keeping your designs based on simple mathematical relationships is also a good idea when you're tramping around a wheat field at night trying to follow the plans.


"The Republican agenda is to turn the United States into a third-world shithole." -P.Z.Myers
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 12/05/2003 :  22:28:29   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Oh, come on, ktesibios! Such a tease. Do the crop-circle ratios match better with a just intonation, or do the numbers still need to be fudged?

More importantly, do aliens use just intonation for their music?

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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