Harmony of the universe

[Robert Scott]

Kirsi Lassi wrote:
>
>The other week a customer of mine wanted me to tune her piano
>to the pitch a1= 432 Hz.
 ...
>..having read in a newspaper about 12 years ago, 
>that someone had found out that the whole universe sort of vibrates 
>in a way, that everything is evenly divisible by eight.
 ...

  If you are wondering if 432 Hz is "universal" because it is
divisible by 8, consider this:  Since the number of cycles per
second is based on the definition of the second, you would first
have to show that the time interval of one second is in some
sense "universal".  It is not.  It is based on the completely
arbitrary way we divide a day into 86400 seconds.  An isolated
civilization could just as well have come up with a different
unit of time under which the same pitch that we call 432 cycles
per second would be called 373.248 cycles per centon in their units.
(A centon is 1/100,000 of a day.)

Bob Scott
Ann Arbor, Michigan