Mathematics
The basilar membrane of the inner ear spreads out different frequencies: high frequencies produce a large vibration at the end near the middle ear (the "base"), and low frequencies a large vibration at the distant end (the "apex"). Thus the ear performs a sort of frequency analysis, roughly similar to a Fourier transform. However, the nerve pulses delivered to the brain contain both rate-versus-place and fine temporal structure information, so the similarity is not strong.
Read more about this topic: Hearing (sense)
Famous quotes containing the word mathematics:
“In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
For he, by geometric scale,
Could take the size of pots of ale;
Resolve, by sines and tangents straight,
If bread and butter wanted weight;
And wisely tell what hour o’ th’ day
The clock doth strike, by algebra.”
—Samuel Butler (1612–1680)
“Mathematics alone make us feel the limits of our intelligence. For we can always suppose in the case of an experiment that it is inexplicable because we don’t happen to have all the data. In mathematics we have all the data ... and yet we don’t understand. We always come back to the contemplation of our human wretchedness. What force is in relation to our will, the impenetrable opacity of mathematics is in relation to our intelligence.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“... though mathematics may teach a man how to build a bridge, it is what the Scotch Universities call the humanities, that teach him to be civil and sweet-tempered.”
—Amelia E. Barr (1831–1919)