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Posted by thanatoid on 04/25/06 22:59
Gene E. Bloch <spamfree@nobody.invalid> wrote in
news:mn.cb897d6433311482.1980@nobody.invalid:
> On 4/24/2006, thanatoid posted this:
>> Gene E. Bloch <spamfree@nobody.invalid> wrote in
>> news:mn.c2cb7d64b505b446.1980@nobody.invalid:
>
>>> In all fairness: the human auditory system is far more
>>> clever, not to mention complicated, than you seem to
>>> realize. I can tell where sounds are coming from pretty
>>> much over the whole 4 pi steradians, as can most people.
>>> So the x.1 or x.3 (cute) systems do provide a deeper
>>> experience for at least some listeners.
>>
>> While I have NO idea what "4 pi steradians" means, I am
>> well aware that 5.1 (NOT sure about 7.1) is AUDIBLY
>> different (not superior, just different) from stereo let
>> alone mono. IMO, some stuff sounds better in mono no
>> matter what it is.
>
> A steradian (from stere, solid, and radian, an angular
> unit, from radius) is a unit of "solid angle". I guess I
> should add that pi is the usual constant, 3.14159..., but I
> better not stop there, huh?
>
> Solid angle is the three dimensional analog of angle. A
> regular angle is a percentage of the circumference of a
> circle as marked out by an arc on the circumference as seen
> form the center of the circle. Solid angle is similarly the
> percentage of the area of a sphere marked out by an area on
> the surface as seen from the center of the sphere. The area
> can have any shape, unlike in the 2-D case.
>
> If you recall the formula for the area of a circle, it is A
> = 4 pi r-squared. Thus a circle where r = 1, called a unit
> sphere, has an area of 4 pi, and the area of an arbitrary
> shape on the surface of a unit sphere is its angle in
> steradians. Thus, 4 pi steradians means all directions, up,
> down, left, right, forward, behind; so, it is the entire
> world surrounding you.
>
> While I'm ranting: Regular angles can be measured in
> radians, which are the length of an arc on a unit circle,
> so a full circle has two pi radians.
>
> The exam will be Friday at 10:00 AM.
>
> HTH,
> Gino
>
With your impressive knowledge, you probably also know that
humans start losing brain cells around the age of 30, not to
mention other contributing factors.
Being over 50, I understood just enough to get a good idea, and
I thank you for taking the time.
I like stereo, but I don't like surround very much. It doesn't
seem natural to me. I prefer b&w films to color, generally, for
the same reason. (You can look up this subject as many film
theorists have written about it). Maybe I'm just old, even
though I enjoyed Nam June Paik's 1970's videos and other
experimental works of that era which were often cut much faster
than even the fluffiest "videos" of today.
And it's a good thing I don't have any local friends because I
could NEVER learn to operate a cellphone. Still, unlike almost
everyone that uses them (and may they be forever cursed,
especially the ones who use custom ringtones), I DO know why
it's called a cellular phone.
Regards,
t.
--
thanatoid-Tip #9 (an opinion this time)
HTML is very simple, very clever, yet stupid and pointless. But
PDF is so brilliant I can almost forgive Adobe for killing off
all their real and imaginary competitors.
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