[FM] Pythagoras

[Doug Landauer]

> Is it true that Pythagoras invited the tempored scale?

He discovered why scales need to be tempered.
He may have invented "Just intonation"

   http://home.earthlink.net/~kgann/tuning.html

> And if so, why did he do so?

Because 3/2 to the 12th power is not equal to 128.  (It's closer
to 130.)  The difference is called the Pythagorean Comma.  Why do
musicians care?  Because 3/2 is the ratio of a perfect fifth, and
2 is the ratio of an octave.  As they say, just "do the math" :-)


> I have my understanding but I want to see what others know
> about this man.

There are a lot of pages on the web that mention why scales need
to be tempered in various ways. Most of them mention Pythagoras
and the Pythagorean Comma.

   http://www.ixpres.com/interval/dict/pythcom.htm
   http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/pyth.html
   http://www.jimloy.com/physics/scale.htm


Hope this helps...

   -- Doug L.

PS, of course, there are those who'll say it's not a perfect
  fifth unless it's 18-year-old Macallan.