Sounds of Silence
Searles

Fri Aug 11 23:51:38 2000
It has been suggested that silence is the absence of any sound. This is certainly true but according to Fourier's Theorum any function can be formed by combining many other functions at various amplitudes and phases.  This means that there are an infinite number of ways to form silence, the absence of sound being only one of them.*p*For a continuous-time, T-periodic signal x(t), the N-harmonic Fourier series approximation can be written as*p*x(t) = a0  + a1 cos (wot + q1) + a2 cos (2wot + q2)  *br* + ... + aN cos (Nwot + qN)  *p*All one has to do is set x(t) = 0 in the above series to see that the 'a' parameters and the 'wot' can be an infinite variety of solutions.*p*A very simple case can be demonstrated when two sounds are exactly out of phase but with equal amplitude.  In this case the silence is composed of two sounds, though I suppose that the balance between them that produces the silence varies with distance from the source of the two sounds and one's position relative to them.*p*If sound is this way, then how much more so is color (which is after all a wave phenomena)?  Color that is perceived is composed of light that is available to an object, liogt that is absorbed by that object and light that is reflected from that object.  Another subjective form of color is the ability of optical receptors to respond to certain wavelengths of light.  Those who work with lights in theater understand how all of these factors come together to set the lighting for a stage production.  Color like sound can be composed of discrete samples of differing colors. This is why a large variety of colors can be formed by the electron beams and phosphors in most CRTs and TV screens.  Here again black can be formed by many colors or an absence of them 9based on the nature of the screen).*p*It's all relative, a matter of balance and of combinations in many varieties.*p*Searles