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Why two almost-equal notes make a wobble: beats and the piano tuner's trick Play two almost-equal notes together and you hear one pitch that swells and fades. Those swells are beats, and their rate is simply the difference in… Music & Sound4 min read20 Oct Why Taipei 101 hangs a 660-tonne ball in its upper floors: the tuned mass damper At the top of Taipei 101 a 660-tonne steel ball hangs in plain view. It is not decoration: it is a tuned mass damper that swings against the building and can… Engineering4 min read19 Oct Why a piano can never be perfectly in tune: twelve fifths overshoot seven octaves Climb twelve perfect fifths and you should land back on your starting note, seven octaves up. You don't: you overshoot by 23.46 cents, nearly a quarter of a… Music & Sound4 min read16 Oct Why a 660-tonne steel ball swings to keep Taipei 101 still Skyscrapers sway in the wind, and gusts that match the tower's own rhythm can make it sway more and more. Taipei 101's answer is a 660-tonne steel pendulum… Engineering4 min read3 Oct Why guitar frets get closer together as you go up the neck Guitar frets crowd together toward the body because of one fact about hearing: we hear pitch by ratio, not by difference. Each fret has to raise the note by… Music & Sound5 min read28 Sep Why two almost-in-tune notes throb, and how tuners use the wobble Play two notes that are almost in tune and you hear one note that swells and fades: wah-wah-wah. Neither string is wobbling. The throb, called a beat, appears… Music & Sound5 min read27 Sep Why a piano has 12 notes: the circle of fifths that never quite closes Stack pure 3:2 fifths, the most consonant interval after the octave, and you'd expect to eventually land back on your starting note. You never do. After twelve… Music & Sound5 min read26 Sep