Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by aethr 2737 days ago
Without analyzing it too much this seems to be a perfect visualization of the mathematics of music theory. The lengths of string become quite a direct metaphor for the wavelengths of notes on the music scale, and seeing them move together in progressively different "groups" of notes I imagine closely matches traditional chord structures in different keys.

Quite mesmerizing, and mathematically satisfying at the same time!

4 comments

It's a closer analogy to the "beat frequencies" you get with constructive and destructive interference of waves of similar frequency. The envelope of the total amplitude of the pendulums oscillates with lower frequency than the amplitude of any individual pendulum.

I used Audacity to mix sine waves of the frequencies of the pendulums (51/60Hz, 52/60Hz, ..., 65/60Hz), multiplied by 440 to get them to audio frequency, and it sounds a lot like the UFO sound effect from the 1970s TV series "UFO".

I'm very curious how that sounds, would you mind posting it somwhere?
Posting on first Google result for "share short sound clip". I can put it somewhere else if you have a better suggestion.

https://clyp.it/rfu2x1kb

For this analogy to hold you'd need the 8th ball thread x4 longer than the first, which is very far from the actual ratios used.
Less the notes and scales themselves, and more polyrhythms and phasing. This reminded me of Steve Reich's Clapping Music, and similar phasing-heavy works (Piano Phase, Drumming, Music for Pieces of Wood, 6 Pianos/Marimbas, and Pendulum Music).
amazing, I need to read that book, any other suggestions ?

also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696782

Read that book??
The book you listed seems super interesting.
jazz is variable actuators/pendulums