Abstract
Miss DICKINS'S method of determining from the harmonic series the resultant tone would be of more worth than it is if it did not yield results which are untrue to the facts. These, as is, or ought to be, well known from the observations of the late Dr. Koenig, in some cases differ from those assumed. For example, the combination of two pure tones of the ratio 9: 4 does not yield as the resultant tone 5. And in the case of the ratio 8: 5 the resultant tone actually heard is just as likely to be 2 as 3, or both may be heard. The remark that the method is evidently as applicable to summational as to differential resultant tones is evidently made in ignorance of the circumstance that the “summational” tones are not, in fact, ever heard if the two fundamental tones are pure. They are one of the myths of science.
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THOMPSON, S. Resultant Tones and the Harmonic Series. Nature 66, 6 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/066006b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/066006b0
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