Assuming a tempered scale with A=440 Hz, a 60 Hz tone is almost exactly halfway between A♯ (58.24 Hz) and B (61.68 Hz) two octaves below Middle C, and a 50 Hz tone is between G (49.04 Hz) and G♯ (51.93 Hz) two octaves below Middle C, but slightly flatter than the quarter-tone. These notes fall within the range of a 4-string bass guitar.
60 Hz mains hum
Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player.
You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser.
5 seconds of 60 Hz mains hum
“Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month’s labor in the farmer’s almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.” —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.” —James Boswell (1740–1795)
“We often contradict an opinion when it is actually only the tone with which it was put forward that is uncongenial to us.” —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)