cents

[PNOTNR@aol.com]

     I've noticed that in Journal articles, etc. tuning discussions refer to
 cents when discussing how much difference there is between where a piano is
when one encounters it, and A440.  I know that 100 cents is the distance
between halfsteps, and that when a piano is a half or whole step flat (or #)
I can roughly say that it is 100 or 200 cents.  But when someone says a piano
is 10 or 12 cents off, I wonder if this is of that great use to me. The exact
cent amounts always seem to be small,  for example, " the piano was 17 cents
low".  Nobody ever seems to say,"The instrument was 92 cents flat".  One may
say that a change of 5 or 10 cents constitutes a pitch raise, but as an aural
tuner I find I understand 440 or 435 or whatever beat per second rate, and I
wonder if there is a calculation to translate cents to bps.  Are exact cent
amounts mainly a tool for those using electronic tuners?  Any responses would
be appreciated.  Thanks

Gordon R. Large, RPT
Mt. Vernon, Maine