Helmholtz, Riemann, and the sirens: sound, color, and the ``problem of space'' (Q892377)

The paper looks at Helmholtz's studies on hearing, which illuminated musical evidence through experiments with mechanical sirens that connected audible with visible phenomena, and showed how the concept of frequency unifies motion, velocity, and pitch. Riemann was also at work on the nature of hearing and the mechanisms of the ear, and his critique of Helmholtz's work on hearing led Helmholtz to respond and study Riemann's then-unpublished lecture on the foundations of geometry. The author shows that Helmholtz also drew a ``close analogy \(\dots\) in all essential relations between the musical scale and space'', and concludes by observing that this work on hearing and seeing led to reconsideration and generalization of the concept of space that Einstein was later to shape into the general manifold of relativistic space-time.