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No piece of technology or Swiss precision-measuring instrument has ever come near the extraordinary sensitivity of the ear in its abilities to detect nano-changes in loudness and frequency or pitch. (Frequency is an acoustic measurement of the voice's vibrations; pitch is a perceptual term- how those frequencies sound to us). If you play a pure tone (where the pattern of vibration keeps repeating itself, like a tuning fork) at a single level of loudness, the ear can perceive 1,400 different pitches. If, on the other hand, you keep to one frequency but change the volume or intensity, the ear is capable of identifying 280 different levels of loudness. That means that, if both the frequency and intensity are changed, the ear has a repertoire of between 300,000 and 400,000 distinguishable tones. Does the planet contain a more discriminating organ?
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Anne Karpf (The Human Voice: How This Extraordinary Instrument Reveals Essential Clues About Who We Are)