Queries On Universal Nature, Or Nature of the Universe :smile: Options

[visuja]

This is in response to a post at the Shlokas thread -- Gayatri Mantra

Can sound (as we know it) be generated in space ?? Theres no (known) medium between the fast moving bodies for sound travel. Else we'd all have evolved as deaf creatures, or probably developed an alternate way to understand sound amidst all the terrible (and terrific) background noise.

Is energy created in the universe (apart from E=mc^2) ? The kinetic energy of galaxies is simply the energy they possess due to their motion. If they stopped moving, all the KE would be transformed into some form of potential energy, I believe. (Although that might lead the collpase of galaxies due to intense gravitational fields). And where is the sink (if any) where energy is consumed ??

This post has been edited by visuja: Aug 31 2005, 08:42 AM

[Mandrake]

Anyways, since the issue cannot be left hanging, here goes (but in a verrrry simplified manner):

When you blow on the top of the hole in a flute, contrary to what most people believe, the air-stream doesn't split into two, and one enter the flute.

What happens is, the entire air-stream 'bounces' over the two opposite edges of the hole. Due to this, the air inside the flute (just under the hole) starts vibrating.
If you keep blowing continuously, slowly the entire air-column inside the flute starts vibrating till it finds it's natural rhythm. (Here I will not go into the technicalities of harmonics etc)

This entire action produces sound. The note of the sound depends upon the length of the air column. So, opening or closing of different holes of the flute produces different notes.

So essentially, if a hollow body has two holes at opposite ends, and if air is continuously blown *across* one hole, then the internal air mass vibrates to produce a continuous sound.

And now comes the most ordinary part (Bibhas you are going to kill me for this )
Any sound, if made continuously and held at a constant pitch (hopefully a low one), eventually sounds like a hum.
And doesn't 'hum' resonate with 'om'?

Something as mundane as a turbine, a generator motor or a vacuum cleaner, run for even 2 minutes will bear this out.

So also something more eclectic as a tanpura. Just keep listening to a tanpura for a few minutes and you'll catch the unmistakable sound of 'ommm' in it...

(Time to beat a hasty retreat before Bibhas smashes M to pulp....)

[bibhas]

Anyways, since the issue cannot be left hanging, here goes (but in a verrrry simplified manner):

Thanks for the post Mandrake and more so for not taxing my already taxed brain.

And now comes the most ordinary part (Bibhas you are going to kill me for this )
Any sound, if made continuously and held at a constant pitch (hopefully a low one), eventually sounds like a hum.
And doesn't 'hum' resonate with 'om'?

Something as mundane as a turbine, a generator motor or a vacuum cleaner, run for even 2 minutes will bear this out.

So also something more eclectic as a tanpura. Just keep listening to a tanpura for a few minutes and you'll catch the unmistakable sound of 'ommm' in it...

(Time to beat a hasty retreat before Bibhas smashes M to pulp....)

I do feel like smashing you to pulp but then who would I ask the rest of my questions ?
Anyways, Jokes apart, I think it is probably important to distinguish between the "hum" and "om" (your point is well taken though).
"Om" is supposed to be pronounced (what's the right word for "ucchAran" ?) in a certain way. Musically speaking, the underlying notes for pronouncing the right Om are the same as those that a perfectly tuned tanpura uses (I'm talking about the most common way of tuning it, not the variations), and so IMHO, the sound the tanpura produces is "OM", one need not listen to it for any length of time before one hears an Om in it (unlike the other sounds you mention).
An interesting point: the beauty of the harmonics of the notes played by the tanpura are such that you can hear virtually all the other notes in multiple octaves even though only two notes are actually being played ! Now, if you utter "Om" the right way, you hear the same (If you've ever been to the temple in Tirupati, and have heard the "Om" that is continually played there, you know what I mean). Hence IMHO, "Om" is the most complete sound there is and is probably the reason why it was chosen as a symbol for the "sound of the cosmos" (Nada Brahma) !
Critique and Comments, as always, are welcome.
Bibhas