Calculators
Four small tools for working with frequencies. They do arithmetic and play plain tones. Start with the volume low.
Tone generator
Plays one frequency for one minute, long enough to tune by ear. People hear from about 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Nearest note: A4, in tune with standard tuning.
Hz to note
The nearest note in standard tuning, the length of one cycle, and the wavelength.
- Nearest note
- A4, in tune with standard tuning
- Standard tuning, A = 440 Hz
- One cycle takes
- 2.273 ms
- Wavelength as sound in air
- 78.0 cm
- At 20 °C
- Wavelength as a radio or light wave
- 681.3 km
- In a vacuum
Period to tone
Turns the length of a cycle into a tone by doubling its frequency until it can be heard. This is Hans Cousto’s method.
- Frequency of the cycle
- 3.17 × 10⁻⁸ Hz
- One divided by its length in seconds
- As a tone
- 34.03 Hz
- Doubled 30 times. C♯1, 31 cents below.
The tool stops at the first octave that can be heard. Cousto’s tables often use a higher one, so the Earth year appears as 34.03 Hz here and as 136.10 Hz in the tuning tables: the same note, two octaves apart. A year is counted as 365.2422 days. The result is arithmetic. Nothing in space makes this sound.
Harmonics
A frequency multiplied and divided by whole numbers. A string or a flute sounds overtones at the multiples. A gong does not follow this pattern.
Multiplied by 1 to 16
Divided by 2 to 8
Tap a value to hear it. Values outside the range of hearing cannot be played.