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4dregress • today at 8:14 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

Add in that it only works for us in conditions that approximate Earths atmosphere.

If you could hear music on the surface of Mars without a space suit, I’m pretty sure it would sound quite different.


Replies

tsimionescu • today at 9:01 AM

Musical notes are pretty well defined sound frequencies. The medium which carries that sound wave is irrelevant. You can even get yourself a pair of bone conduction headphones, which would work for listening to music even if you were in a vacuum - since ultimately what matters is the sound wave hitting your ear bones, thr air is just the most common way for it to happen.

Of course, the sound that non-electrical instruments make is indeed dependent on the atmosphere in which they are played, assuming the same motions etc. You could probably make a violin produce the exact same sounds that it does on Earth playing it on Mars, but you'd have to play it differently than you do here. But even this doesn't apply to electrical instruments - Jimi Hendrix would sound the same if he could somehow play on the surface of Mars.

mettamage • today at 8:57 AM

The longer I live, the more I feel air and water are similar in that regard. Fish live in water, we live in air which is less sticky. If air was stickier, more species could fly since flying and swimming are basically similar things but water molecules seem to pack tighter (that’s my guess at least) so when you displace it, you can generate a force (e.g. by flapping).

In that sense, I think any form of atmosphere, it will have its own music but it would probably not sound great in other atmospheres.

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