I’ve been playing a lot with harmonics lately with DJing. I have a less than precise ear, so I use a program (Virtual DJ) to name the keys of the tracks for me. I then discovered the Camelot system for mixing keys. Since I’ve really been into melodic tech house lately, it’s really opened my eyes (and ears) to the beauty of music. Harmonics are the ways the frequencies of certain sounds interact, creating the beautiful and sometimes challenging chords found in most music.
Something I found of interest as I researched this subject regards the sound wave interval known as the Fifth. The ratio of these two sounds is 3:2 (i.e. 385 Hz and 256 Hz, which are G and middle C, respectively). The harmony of the two is unmistakable. What is even more interesting, though, is that this ratio is known in mathematics as the golden ratio. The Greek mathematician Euclid was the first to write about it almost 2400 years ago. Since then, this ratio is seen in nature, architecture, and, of course, music. There are numerous books and websites available to find out more about this.
But this makes me wonder: before the universe as we know it was created, did this ratio exist as we know it today? Or, to make an abstract: did the laws of physics already exist say in the milliseconds after the Big Bang? If it did, this implies a pre-existing intelligence who devised all the rules before the universe began. But, what if instead, the laws of physics came about as they became necessary. As the subatomic soup of the early universe began to coagulate, react and bond, the rules of how these new particles would interact became the reality. There could have been an infinite amount of ways these particles could interact, but because of their proximity, the demands of this new relationship required that one rule be chosen. And perhaps as we see in biological evolution, the choice wasn’t the best, but the one that would work in the moment for the relationship to continue.
And now we have the universe as we know it. So what about the relationship between dark matter, which makes up almost 25% of the universe, and the electromagnetic spectrum (something like 5%) we know and love. Perhaps the only relationship that was necessary between the two was that of gravity. My mind hums with excitement when I think of the what exactly lies within this unknown realm of dark matter. As we continue to study it, the rules of dark matter, too, will become apparent, and, undoubtedly, will reveal the same beauty that exists within all relationships – whether they be two notes on a piano, or two realms of our universe.
