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The smallest difference a music expert can hear

Music experts can hear a difference of 4 cents. Cent is a music theory concept. In order to improve the accuracy of measuring pitch, each "semitone" and "interval" (such as a~a# or b~c) are divided into 100 cents in measurement to facilitate the calculation of its error rate. ”?

1. Definition: Cents (cents) are used to improve the accuracy of measuring sound pitch. In measurement, each "semitone" interval is divided into 100 cents to facilitate the calculation of its error rate. The absolute difference in frequency between each cent is different, but their multiples are the same, which are 1.00057779 times different.

Sound is a sound wave generated by the vibration of an object. The wave phenomenon that spreads through the medium (air or solid, liquid) and can be sensed by the hearing organs of humans or animals. The object that initially emits vibration (vibration) is called the sound source.

2. Historical background

In the 1830s, at the suggestion of Robert Holford Macdowell Bosanquet, acoustic scholar and comparative music scholar Alexander Alexander John Ellis based his work on the "acoustic logarithms" decimal semitone system developed by Gaspard de Prony.

He introduced the concept of cents in his translation of Hermann von Helmholtz's book On the Sensations of Tone. Cents have become a relatively standard way of expressing and comparing pitches and intervals.