Tuning and Ratio
Age 16 to 18
Challenge Level
You don't need ANY knowledge of music to solve this problem. All
the maths you need to know and understand is the definition of
logarithms.
Don't be put off by the fact that there is a lot to read and don't
be put off if you have not enjoyed music theory in the past. Read
the problem and you'll find it tells you all you need to know about
music to solve it.
To find how many tones there are in an octave, trial and error is
perfectly adequate, but you can also get an exact answer using
logarithms.
Similarly to find the number of thirds in an octave you can get an
exact answer using logarithms.
To relate the different scales to the linear equal tempered scale
in cents you need to calculate the power of ${(2)}^{1/12}$
corresponding to the ratio for each note and then multiply by 100
to convert the measure to cents.
For example, to find the measures in cents corresponding to the
note A, the calculations are, for the just intonation: $$1200\times
{\log (5/3)\over \log 2}$$ and for the Pythagorean scale:
$$1200\times {\log(27/16)\over \log 2}.$$