Robbin Williams has, on occasion, played lectures by
scientists about under-sea sounds and how one can tell the
health of the environment plus he has given historical
presentations about such figures in science as
Herman Ludwig Ferdinand Helmholtz. If that name rings a
bell, with some of you, it should also resonate, pun intended.
Helmholtz was a true renascence man who lived in the mid 1800's
in Germany and who did research on the human ear and acoustics
in general. He noticed that if you pressed the sustain pedal on
a piano to un-damp all the strings, one could place little wads
of paper on each string and then sing furiously loud and make
the paper bounce on certain strings but not others. He examined
cadaver ears and discovered the cochlea which stimulates
auditory nerve fibers based on resonances which is how we hear
pitch. He unified several scientific fields including
electricity and his name is seen in such things as the Helmholtz
resonator which is a passive device that amplifies a sound. If
you want to see one, look inside an older electromechanical
doorbell or examine a xylophone and notice the hollow tubes
behind the chimes. Each tube is tuned to the fundamental note of
the chime and that is a Helmholtz Resonator.
Anyway, Robbin Williams devoted almost a whole show, one
week to Helmholtz and his contributions.
Getting it in a podcast is good because some weeks, the
Fast-Forward button is your dearest friend but there is usually
something good to hear.
For those of us who love to find out how the world
works, there just isn't enough of that sort of programming.
Martin
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