Everybody Hertz: The Amazing World of Frequency, from Bad Vibes to Good Vibrations

Description

Vic Tandy was a level-headed scientist, but there was no denying it: at this late hour in his lonely lab at Coventry University, he kept seeing a grey apparition out of the corner of his eye. Bathed in a cold sweat, his heart pounding in his chest, he questioned his own rational mind - could this really be a supernatural encounter? What on Earth could be sending such an eerie shudder through his body? Strange frequencies are all around us - in fact, there may be no limit to the marvellous power of vibration. So catch a wave with musical adventurer Richard Mainwaring and take a wild ride across the keys of his infinite piano. Along the way, you'll join the quest for the world's loneliest whale, whose tragically out-of-tune song has haunted oceanographers for decades. You'll discover what strange melodies are hidden in rats' whiskers and rainbows. And you'll find out how vibrations good and bad govern more or less everything around you.

Richard Mainwaring is a performing musician, composer, TV presenter and educator. He presented around fifty music films on the BBC's flagship magazine programme The One Show, and is a regular interviewee on musical matters on Jeremy Vine's BBC Radio 2 lunchtime show.

'Sing the note of the frequency 123 Hz. I assume you are struggling? It's probably easier if I reveal that 123.47 Hz is the first guitar note of the Rolling Stones' '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' ... The impact of frequencies upon us humans is staggering. To eat or be eaten is often a matter of a single frequency. From communicating where the next meal is, to drumming out a courtship dance, from plucking the strings of a finely spun silk web to navigation via the micro-vibrations of the mountains, all living things rely upon Hertz' - From the Preface