SydLeicx?

Am I dyslexic? I recently took a survey which said so, and it's been suggested that I am. Not like it really matters much. Anyway, there was a comment form at the end of the survey and this is what I wrote:

"I was always talented at math; usually top-of-the-class. However, the mistakes that I did make were usually adding errors, getting adding mixed up with multiplication, or getting my fractions upside-down. This last example is oddly relevant considering that, in music theory, a musical interval is determined by the ratio of two frequencies and that a chord is considered to retain its integrity when inverted (ie. when the fraction is turned upside-down). I'm a musician.

Also: when given driving instructions, I've found difficulty (slowness) in visualizing a response to "turn left" or "turn right", or any description involving left and right. However, this problem diminished with care and attention. I've put some effort into trying to become ambidextrous but with not much success. I'm a very good speller but most of my typing errors involve pressing keys in the wrong order. When handwriting, I often leave off the last letter of a word (unintentionally of course). Also, my middle name is Alexander and I've use that as a source for one of my musical pseudonyms, Lex Plexus. Am I dyslexic? I don't know. I usually avoid labels as they can become limiting."

Root 2 connections

The brainfart on page 47 of my book "Chaos In Boxes" describes a hairy scenario involving the Square Root of 2; it was the first irrational number to be discovered by Hippasus* and resulted in his assassination by his fellow Pythagoreans, who believed all numbers to be expressible as the ratio of two integers!

(This came about during the Chapter "Quincunx And The Legend Of The Chromatic Transformation Matrix Starflower", wherein I was inspired to compare a semitone to a fifth.)

Since then, I've noticed a few connections concerning Root 2.

A musical interval between two notes can be described by dividing their frequencies; it so happens that Root 2 (which equals 1.414213...) is exactly the ratio for the infamous Tritone in Equal Temperament. This seems somehow suitable or ironic, considering that:

a) the Tritone was once condemned as "evil" by some religions - echoing in my mind the Pythagorean's rejection of Hippasus

b) the Tritone ultimately holds the key to undeniably powerful harmony through the resolution of a dominant chord towards its parent tonic chord - echoing in my mind the importance of Hippasus' discovery of irrational numbers

I was quite thrilled to notice this.

But wait, there's more...

As I was sitting at a friend's living room jamming along with cable radio, I switched to the jazz station. It was channel 414. I had to wonder if someone at the radio station chose channel 414 as their station number because of the significance of the number 1.414. After all, a very common technique in jazz is Tritone substitution, a.k.a. the "Sub V". This is based on the fact that a dominant 7th chord is extremely similar to the same type of chord a Tritone away, sharing most of the same tones.

Just today I learned that ISO paper sizes (A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, etc.) all have an aspect of Root 2! (The big advantage of this proportion is that you can cut or fold such a rectangle in half and it will still have the same aspect ratio, enabling scaling without cutoffs or margins.)

I feel inspired to find more Root 2 connections; I thought I would find something in astronomy but haven't found anything yet. I guess I'll just have to wait for the next brainfart to dawn on me; that's just the way it goes sometimes.

* note: The Hippasus scenario happened in the 5th century B.C., but there exists a Babylonian clay tablet depicting Root 2 which is 1100 years older. Others may have probably discovered irrational numbers at various points in history.