Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each musical interval to its string-length ratio.
- Octave
- Perfect fifth
- Perfect fourth
- Unison
- Two to one
- One to one
- Three to two
- Four to three
Hints
- The simplest ratios give the most consonant intervals.
- The octave halves the string.
Show the answer
- Octave → Two to one
- Perfect fifth → Three to two
- Perfect fourth → Four to three
- Unison → One to one
Why
Simplicity of ratio tracks consonance exactly, which is a genuinely surprising empirical fact and not something anyone could have predicted from how notes sound.
Practise Pythagoras and Early Pythagoreanism
The app has 3 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Philosophy I is free to start.
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