From Kelsey Damas Sent Thu, Jun 10th 1999, 19:42
From Kelsey Damas Sent Thu, Jun 10th 1999, 19:42
This is getting silly, but I had to chime in :) >From the keys of Moonlight: > Wait a minute here, i'm guessing there are uncountably many different sound > variations/sequences that could be made, so if we only have a countably > infinte number of monkeys (how could we have an uncountable number? we > could just ask them to stand in line and then we'd know that thy're only > countable) infinity, by definition, is uncountable. Only numbers are countable, and infinity isn't a number, but a concept we use to describe limits as numbers become increasingly large. >SNIP< > So the question is, how large is the set of all the different sound > possibilites? Countable? Uncountable? Please use transfinte numbers > Aleph-Naught, Aleph-One, etc. in any response. hehe :) I think the real question is how large is the set of distinct sounds that the human ear can actually hear. You can tweak a sound an infinite number of ways. For instance, take filter knob that is set at 0 and goes to 11 (spinal tap!). Now turn it halfway to full, or to 5.5. Turn it halfway to 11 again, or to 8.25. Repeating this gives you 9.625, 10.3125, 10.65625, etc, etc. You'll never turn the knob all the way over, but you'll get closer every time, thus producing a new sound every time (assuming your gear is good enough). The ear isn't going to be able to distinguish every sound, though. ok, now I have to get back to studying for my calculus final.... > _________________________________ > Adam Roesch / xxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx > University of Idaho / Moscow / ID / USA -- .....................................k.e.l.s.e.y...d.a.m.a.s...... --------------------------------------xxxxxxx@xxxx.xxxx.xxx------- -http://www.porter.ucsc.edu/~anagram/ --------------- ..................................................................