Answers to Tutorial No 1, Semester 1, 2013/14

1. Two agpoles are standing next to each other, and during a thunderstorm, the two agpoles begin swaying from side to side repeatedly. The shorter agpole is observed to sway such that it undergoes 5 cycles in 8 seconds. You also observe that the taller agpole undergoes 3 cycles in the same time which the shorter agpole undergoes 4 cycles. What are the frequencies of the two agpoles? If the thunderstorm becomes more violent such that the frequency of the taller agpole increases to 0.75 Hz, what would the frequency of the shorter agpole be, if its frequency increases in the same proportion as that of the taller agpole? Answer: The shorter agpole undergoes 5 cycles in 8 seconds, which means that it has a frequency of 5 8 Hz i.e. 0.625 Hz. The shorter agpole would undergo 4 cycles in a duration given by 8 seconds times 4 5 i.e. 6.4 seconds, which is the same duration taken by the longer agpole to undergo 3 cycles. Hence the frequency of the longer agpole is given by 63 .4 Hz i.e. 0.46875 Hz. If the frequency of the longer agpole increases to 0.75 Hz, then the frequency of the shorter agpole would be equal to 0.625 Hz times 0.75 0.46875 i.e. 1 Hz. 2. A bassoonist plays a musical note on her bassoon which has a frequency of 55 Hz. A piccolo player then

plays a note on his piccolo with a frequency of 3,520 Hz. How many octaves are there between these two notes? If an oboeist then plays a note on her oboe with a frequency of 440 Hz, how many octaves are there between the oboe note and the piccolos and bassoons note? If a clarinet plays a note which is two octaves above the bassoon note, what is its frequency and how many octaves is this note below the piccolos note? If the piccolos note had a frequency of 3,600 Hz, and all the other notes still maintained the same relationship to the piccolos note, what would their frequencies be? Answer: Since going up an octave means a doubling of the frequency, if we go up from the bassoons note by an octave six times, i.e. multiply 55 Hz by 2 six times, we will obtain the piccolos frequency of 3,520 Hz. Hence the bassoons note is 6 octaves below the piccolos note. If the oboes note has a frequency of 440 Hz, this is 3 octaves above the bassoons note since 55 Hz times 2 three times gives a frequency of 440 Hz. Thus the oboe note is 3 octaves below the piccolos note. The clarinets note is 2 octaves above the bassoons note and its frequency is thus given by 55 Hz times 2 times 2 i.e. 220 Hz, and is 4 octaves below the piccolos note. If the piccolo note has a frequency of 3,600 Hz, the bassoons note which is 6 octaves below would have a frequency of 3,600 Hz divided by 26 i.e. 56.25 Hz. The clarinet note which is 2 octaves above the bassoon note would have a frequency of 56.25 Hz times 4 i.e. 225 Hz, and the oboe note which is a further octave up would have a

frequency of 225 Hz times 2 i.e. 450 Hz. 3. During a parade, a marching band is 50 metres away from you, and its sound registers a reading of 57 dB on a sound level meter which you are carrying. When the band is in front of you, the sound power reaching you from the band is 1,000 times more powerful than when it was 50 metres away. When the band marches away from you and is quite a distance away, it registers a reading of 47 dB on the sound level meter. What is the reading on the sound level meter when the band is right in front of you? How much less powerful is the sound from the band which reaches you when its sound registers 47 dB on the sound level meter, as compared to when it was in front of you? (Assume that the sound level meter reading is due only to the marching band.) Answer: An increase in sound power of 10 times results in an increase in the sound level meter reading of 10 dB, and hence an increase in sound power of 1,000 times or an increase of 10 times 10 times 10 times will result in an increase in the sound level meter reading by 10 dB plus 10 dB plus 10 dB i.e. 30 dB. Thus when the band is in front of you, the reading on the sound level meter should be 30 dB higher than when it was 50 metres away which means it should be equal to 57 dB plus 30 dB i.e. 87 dB. When the band registers 47 dB, this is 40 dB less than when it was in front of you. Hence the sound reaching you is 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times i.e. 10,000 times less powerful than when the band

was in front of you. 4. A melody for the ute has a musical score with a time signature of 14/16 at its beginning. The addition of a dot to a note or a rest increases the duration of the rest or note by 50%. In one of the bars of this melody, the bar starts with a dotted quaver and a semiquaver rest, and ends with 4 semiquavers. Determine the number of semiquaver notes which could t exactly into the middle of the bar so that the bar contains a combination of rests and notes which corresponds with the time signature of 14/16. If the initial quaver is not dotted, how many semiquavers would t in the middle of the bar? If the time signature was 20/16 instead of 14/16, and the initial quaver was not dotted, how many semiquavers would t into the middle? Answer: If the score has a time signature of 14/16, this indicates that each bar of the melody should be lled with the duration equivalent of 14 semiquavers. The bar is already lled with a dotted quaver which is equivalent to 3 semiquavers, a semiquaver rest which is equivalent to 1 semiquaver, and 4 semiquavers, making a total of 8 semiquavers. Hence the middle of the bar needs another 6 semiquavers. If the initial quaver is not dotted, it would be equivalent to 2 semiquavers, so that the bar would already have 7 instead of 8 semiquavers. The middle of the bar would thus need 7 semiquavers. If the time signature is 20/16, this means that the bar should have a total of 20 semiquavers, and the middle of the bar

requires 20 minus 7 i.e. 13 semiquavers. 5. On a standard piano keyboard, the interval from any key to its immediate neighbouring key is always a semitone. An octave is the interval from any key to the next key above or below it having the same letter name (i.e. A, B, C etc), and is always made up of 12 semitones. Starting from the piano key with the letter name of F which is just below Middle C on a piano keyboard, how many semitones are there from this F to the key with the letter name of A just above Middle C? What is the letter name of the key which is an identical number of semitones below the F? Determine how many octaves there are from this lower note below the F to the A just above Middle C. Answer: From the F just below Middle C to the A just above Middle C, you can count a total of 16 semitones between them. Going down by 16 semitones from the F, you will reach a note with the letter name of D at or C sharp. From this note to the A just above Middle C, there is a total of 32 semitones. Since an octave is exactly 12 semitones, this is the same as 2 octaves plus 8 semitones or 2 and two-thirds of an octave. 6. We dene the ratio of a musical interval from a musical note to another musical note of a higher pitch as the ratio of the frequency of the higher note to the frequency of the lower note. Starting from a musical note with a frequency of 640 Hz, if we go down by an interval with a ratio of 16 9 , what is the frequency

of the note on which we will arrive? If we now go up from this second note by an interval with a ratio of 19 8 , what is the frequency of the third note on which we will arrive? Calculate the ratio of the interval between the rst note and the third note. Answer: Going down from the rst note with a frequency of 640 Hz, we have to divide 640 Hz by a ratio of 16 9 , which is the same as multiplying 640 9 Hz by 16 , which gives us a frequency of 360 Hz. To go up from 360 Hz with an interval of ratio 19 8 , we 19 have to multiply 360 Hz by 8 which gives 855 Hz. The interval from 640 Hz to 855 Hz is given by 855 640 which can be simplied to 171 . This ratio can also 128 16 by be obtained by dividing 19 8 9.