source file: mills2.txt
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 08:13:42 +0200

Subject: Re: atmospheric affects

From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison)

>To what degree does atmospheric conditions affect music transmission and
>perception?
>  o Temperature, Humidity and Pressure (aside from instrumental changes)

   Uhmmm...  Almost certainly the effect of humidity and temperature upon
the plain-and-simple comfort of the listener would VASTLY outweigh any
subtler effect of these parameters.




>  o Motion of Observer-Listener?  (like einstein relativity)

   Surely I must misunderstand that question!  Relativistic motion effects
have no meaning in any musical environment, for two obvious reasons and
many others:
1.  If I remember the math correctly, relativistic effects will be on the order
    of 1 MILLIONTH OF A PERCENT (almost certainly of no musical significance
    whatsoever) at an airspeed of about 65 billion miles per hour.  At that
    speed, heat due to air-friction would incinerate any object capable of
    generating or receiving a sound in a matter of nanoseconds.  A few
    nanoseconds (billionths of a second) is obviously far too short a time to
    develop any sort of musical appreciation for whatever you're hearing!
2.  Doppler effect in that sort of environment would turn KHz-range sound
    frequencies into either the millihertz or Gigahertz range, either of which
    is obviously FAR beyond any human's ability to hear.




>  o Interference (nearby mechanical and electrical devices)

   The possibilities - masking for example - are too numerous to list and
explore, even in cursory detail, in anything short of a book.

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
           with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sun, 6 Jul 1997 11:06 +0200
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA05612; Sun, 6 Jul 1997 11:06:51 +0200
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 11:06:51 +0200
Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05618
Received: (qmail 4553 invoked from network); 6 Jul 1997 09:06:47 -0000
Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1)
  by localhost with SMTP; 6 Jul 1997 09:06:47 -0000
Message-Id: <970706044204_1178835171@emout02.mail.aol.com>
Errors-To: madole@mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu