Black Hole Strikes Deepest Musical Note Ever Heard

Science.com ^ | September 9, 2003 | Robert Roy Britt

[<1/1,000,000th%]

And then there's Gustav Holst.

[SiVisPacemParaBellum]

All this time I've been impressed with 30Hz.

[CaptainK]

“Kepler discovered physical harmonies in planetary motion. He found that the difference between the maximum and minimum angular speeds of a planet in its orbit approximates a harmonic proportion.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonice_Mundi

[blues_guitarist]

Maybe that's why so many worship songs are written in "F"

[BigBobber]

I’m becoming more and more convinced that earth is the only place in the universe that harbors higher forms of life. The reason is that most parts of galaxies are just far to violent to have a stable environment like we have had on earth for four billion years. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that our solar system is on the outside margin of our galaxy, with the nearest star from the sun far far away.

On Science Channel TV last night they had a simulation of galaxies spinning around a massive black hole. It looked like oatmeal going down a garbage disposal and being spit out again. There’s no way a planet like earth could survive a trip like that.

So there may be “billions and billions” of solar systems that could harbor life, but very few that could be a stable incubator for the four billions year it took man to come into the scene. Scary thought.

[Savage Beast]

So this explains it. I've often wondered why F-major is my favorite key.

And B-flat-major is my next favorite key. I'll bet there's a black hole out there sending out a pure E-flat tone!

Another thing. I discovered the Circle of Fifths as a child, fooling around with the piano. I wondered where it went, in both directions. Then when I studied music seriously, I learned the answer: To infinity, in each direction. I'll betcha there's an entire Black Hole Orchestra out there playing Circle of Fifths to infinity in each direction.

And imagine other possibilities, if we have infinity and eternity as our playpen.

And some people don't think God has a sense of humor!

Or even that He exists!

What a hoot!

I had a dear employee once who had more problems than anyone could imagine--including alcoholism, homosexuality, oppressed minority status--you name it.

Once I told her a joke that was a bit--well--sacreligious. Then it occurred to me that I might have offended her.

To try to soothe possible ruffled feathers, I said: "I think God has a sense of humor, don't you?"

After thinking for a moment, she replied: "I'm depending on it."

You can see why I loved her.

[Rudder]

The 53 hours of Chandra observations revealed a note that is more than a million billion times deeper than what you can hear.

I can hear 20 cps, divide that by a million billion and you'll have the frequency of that observed by Chandra, or 0.00000000002 cycles per second.

[HIDEK6]

So how many hours per cycle is that?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Sometimes, I think they just make this stuff up to see if anyone's reading it.

In space, I thought, "no one can hear you scream." Yet, black holes just go right on, defying the laws of physics by making noise in space.

The article could do a better job of explaining that the sound waves are being propagated through the huge expanse of gas surrounding the black hole. Bad reporting doesn't equal bad science.

[Eaker]

Chopin could .........

[AnotherUnixGeek]

On Science Channel TV last night they had a simulation of galaxies spinning around a massive black hole. It looked like oatmeal going down a garbage disposal and being spit out again. There’s no way a planet like earth could survive a trip like that.

I believe the current thinking is that there is a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy as well. Obviously our sun orbits the center at a distance sufficient to let it and us exist - along with many other stars, some of which might conceivably have planets supporting life.

[justlurking]

You would think they would state the actual frequency at least once in the entire freakin’ article.

[badgerlandjim]

I’ll be danged. Even lower than Tennessee Ernie?

[HIDEK6]

You would think they would state the actual frequency at least once in the entire freakin’ article.

I confess to looking for just that information when I first read the article.

Then I got lost in the idea of it all.

[HIDEK6]

I’ll be danged. Even lower than Tennessee Ernie?

Yes!

Even lower than the good looking Oak Ridge Boy who sang the "pa-pa-oo-mau-maus" on Elvira.

[FreedomOfExpression]

You would think they would state the actual frequency at least once in the entire freakin’ article.

That would have actually been informative, huh?

[ml/nj]

This is incredibly stupid. If you do the math, it works out to one oscillation every ten million years or so. C is 440 Hz, which is close enough to Bb. One octave down is 220 or 440 x 2^-1. So 57 octaves down is 440 x 2^-57, which is a ridiculously small number of oscillations per second so it helps to divide the reciprocal by 60x60x24x365.25 to get years per oscillation. Anyone who thinks something like this can be observed or measured needs serious help.

ML/NJ

[101voodoo]

"No human will actually hear the note, because it is 57 octaves below the keys in the middle of a piano"

Nonsense. Apparently this guy has never heard the base singer for the Coasters, Nat Williams.

[FreedomOfExpression]

So how many hours per cycle is that?

More than a year per cycle, possibly?
Math wizards, can you help us out here?

[reaganbooster]

Micheal Moore burped?