http://astro.temple.edu/~kmr/Chauffe2.mp3
first you'll hear a 10-cylinder, 750 horsepower asiatech f1 engine being
warmed up. Then it performs a rousing version of "when the saints come
marching in", to the delight of assembled pit staff and journalists.
Here's how the magic was achieved (technical/musical details via f1 racing
magazine):
as we all know, a v10 engine produces five combustions per revolution at a
frequency per second of 60/(5 x revs per minute), which equals 12/rpm.
therfore, to work out the revs you need to hit a particular musical note,
you multiply the note's frequency by 12. To play a 440hz 'a', for example,
you need 5,280rpm. For 'c', use 3,139rpm, for 'f' 4,191rpm, and so on.
Asiatech's french technicians (the engine, despite its name, is derived
from a peugeot design) simply programmed their engine to run through the
various rev/note ranges in the correct sequence. The result is delightful.
And think of the possibilities - bmw's f1 engine, which howls all the way to
19,050rpm, could rip through the entire hendrix songbook...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Feb 06 2004 - 11:45:43 EST