Contrabass Digest

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2000-06-10

Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2000 18:47:44 -0400
From: "farfl's house" <farfl@>
Subject: [CB] Vibrating Waterwings
Yikes! Look out, Heliconman! You might also be cited for sexually-aggressive remarks! {:o
Regards,
Lederman
> From: Heliconman@
> Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 01:01:31 EDT
> Subject: Re: [CB] [Contra digest]
> In a message dated 06/08/2000 10:01:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> mendel6@ writes:
>
> > I wear contacts and sometimes after playing the contra bassoon, espcially
> > on long, low notes everything jiggles - including my brain. DonnaK
>
> I just imagined Dolly Parton playing bass sax and I can't stop grinning!
>
> hehe
> ---------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 18:25:16 -0500 (CDT)
From: Scott Perrin <sperrin@>
Subject: [CB] the speed of light
I know this is off the subject, but being an engineer, I can't resist
replying to the humorous question at the bottom of Lelia's recent post,
concerning what happens when you turn the headlights on in a vehicle
traveling at the speed of light:
>From the perspective of the people in the vehicle, the lights shine ahead
of the vehicle exactly as if the vehicle were not moving.
>From the perspective of a stationary observer watching the vehicle go
speeding past, there is no light visible from the headlights, since the
speed of light is an absolute maximum, and the light can't travel faster
than the vehicle in order to get ahead of it.
Einstein's Theory of Relativity applies here. The two different
observations are relative to the position of the observers, and the
apparent contradiction is explained by the way time itself is affected by
how fast something is traveling.
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 17:42:18 -0700
From: Grant Green <gdgreen@>
Subject: Re: [CB] the speed of light
>I know this is off the subject, but being an engineer, I can't resist
>replying to the humorous question at the bottom of Lelia's recent post,
>concerning what happens when you turn the headlights on in a vehicle
>traveling at the speed of light:
I've been thinking about replying to that all day: you just tipped
the balance... ;-)
> >From the perspective of the people in the vehicle, the lights shine ahead
>of the vehicle exactly as if the vehicle were not moving.
Actually, I'm not sure if the equations still apply, as the Lorentz
contraction would make you infinitesimally thin, infinitely massive,
and for you time will have completely stopped. Your hand never makes
it to the switch: you flash through the universe in (from your point
of view) an instant.
> >From the perspective of a stationary observer watching the vehicle go
>speeding past, there is no light visible from the headlights, since the
>speed of light is an absolute maximum, and the light can't travel faster
>than the vehicle in order to get ahead of it.
Well, some light escapes to the sides: you may not see the vehicle
coming, but you might experience the flash as it goes past. It seems
to me that the headlights would be infinitely red-shifted (as time
for the driver has stopped), but that they are also infinitely
blue-shifted due to the speed of the vehicle. Do they cancel out?
What if the driver (pilot?) starts playing tuba before acceleration?
Of course, that assumes that you survive the spatial distortion
caused by an infinitely massive object whizzing past you at the speed
of light...
Grant
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green               gdgreen@
ecode:contrabass       http://www.contrabass.com
Professional Fool -> http://www.mp3.com/ProFools
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Fmmck@
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 22:16:32 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] busts
In a message dated 6/9/00 2:31:08 PM, jonsmith@ writes:
<< Where could I find a bust of
Beethoven, Lizst, Rachmaninoff and Tschaikowsky?
>>
Stella-
In your travels, have you ever come across a museum that had an exhibit
covering any of these people? If so, the museum might have a gift shop that
sold such souvenirs.
Also, doesn't Linus of Peanuts fame, have one of these busts sitting on his
toy piano? A store that sold Peanuts memorabilia, might also sell the bust.
You also might find such busts in catalogs from "The Music Stand" and "Lark
in the Morning".
Fred McKenzie
MMB
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Lehiconsv@
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 22:22:10 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] busts
Dear Stella:

     Want size bust are you looking for????? brian
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Heliconman@
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 04:19:26 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] Vibrating Waterwings
In a message dated 06/09/2000 7:10:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
farfl@ writes:
> Yikes! Look out, Heliconman! You might also be cited for sexually-aggressive
> remarks! {:o
> Regards,
> Lederman
>
Dolly is a sweetheart with a great sense of humor about "God's Gifts" to her.
I had a chance to work as a local stagehand at a couple of her shows and her
road crew had nothing but great things to say about her. A real angel who
appreciates the "wings" she was given. Sexually aggressive? I might be
tempted, yes! But her sweet way of interacting with people only enhances that.
Which way to Dollywood?!
Heli
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Heliconman@
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 05:01:27 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] the speed of light
In a message dated 06/09/2000 7:35:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, sperrin@ writes:
> I know this is off the subject, but being an engineer, I can't resist
> replying to the humorous question at the bottom of Lelia's recent post,
> concerning what happens when you turn the headlights on in a vehicle
> traveling at the speed of light:
>
> >From the perspective of the people in the vehicle, the lights shine ahead
> of the vehicle exactly as if the vehicle were not moving.
I guess the next question would be whether the light from the headlamps would
travel at twice the speed of light or just as fast as the vehicle travelling
at the speed of light, thus not casting any forward beam and necessitating
turning on the lights before you start travelling just to give the headlight
beams a head start. If the light travels at twice the speed of light, you'd
need contrabass lamps that generate light at half the frequency of normally
visible light, otherwise the 2x light would be at a higher frequency than
normal visible light. Or is it all relative. Personally I think you'd need to
give your high beams a GOOD head start, particularly since you're travelling
at the speed of light. What kind of reaction time would you need to avoid
collision?!!
Also, does an object travelling at the speed of light toward an observer look
like a black hole or does that object's light frequency (color) become twice
as high due to Doppler Effect?
And when the object passes the viewer, is there an effect similar to a sonic
boom, only on a higher, visible frequency??? Yikes!
> >From the perspective of a stationary observer watching the vehicle go
> speeding past, there is no light visible from the headlights, since the
> speed of light is an absolute maximum, and the light can't travel faster
> than the vehicle in order to get ahead of it.
Or can it? It's like throwing a ball forward from a moving vehicle, right? Or
not?

> Einstein's Theory of Relativity applies here. The two different
> observations are relative to the position of the observers, and the
> apparent contradiction is explained by the way time itself is affected by
> how fast something is traveling.

Time travels quickly when you're having fun at the speed of light.
Or at least it seems to!
It's all relative, I guess. I never understood the time part of the theory.
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Alberto Pinton <alberto.pinton@>
Subject: [CB] ONE QUESTION,...A FEW SUGGESTIONS...
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 02:54:38 PST
Hello,
I've one question and a few suggestions for you all:

A collector from here is selling a Evette-Schaeffer bass sax, #11xxx, in great shape, no mother of pearl keys, low pitch, to high Eb. How much would it be worth paying? Is it a pro horn? What's the tuning on these older beasts?(my one question became three...)

now to the suggestions:

I own a Gemeinhardt alto flute and an Artley bass flute, not the best...not the worst: Eva Kingma, the flute maker in the Netherlands, replaced the lip-plates on both 'horns': it made a *huge* difference as far as *everything*...sound, intonation, speed of tonguing, a.s.o...if you have some extra cash to improve your lower flutes, check her out!!

on my clarinets I use Clark Fobes mouthpieces: the contra-alto with his 'one-facing' model, reeds Vandoren Bb contrabass #4...results:no squeaks, *solid* high register and in tune low octave (I've an older Selmer wood...), I think he refaces older Selmer C* so you might get away cheaper if you've one you can send him...

mr.Kermit Welch has a bunch of F mezzo-soprano mouthpieces made by JJ.Babbitt, #5 as the original Conn, as he explained it to me...so if you need one, yours is chipped or your one year old has been using it as a tooth-ring...check him out...I'm getting one myself... BTW I'm selling a Buffet Prestige alto clarinet in like new shape...it's on consignment at Roberto's woodwind store in NY...if you're looking for one, I understand that's a *very* good alto clarinet, especially for 'legit' playing.

Hope I could help somebody with the above info, thanks for whatever info you might have on the Evette bass...
Have a nice weekend

---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 23:05:15 +0100 (BST)
From: Dafydd y garreg wen <mavnw@>
Subject: Re: [CB] the speed of light
On Sat, 10 Jun 2000 Heliconman@ wrote:
> In a message dated 06/09/2000 7:35:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> sperrin@ writes:
>
> > I know this is off the subject, but being an engineer, I can't resist
> > replying to the humorous question at the bottom of Lelia's recent post,
> > concerning what happens when you turn the headlights on in a vehicle
> > traveling at the speed of light:
> >
> > >From the perspective of the people in the vehicle, the lights shine ahead
> > of the vehicle exactly as if the vehicle were not moving.
>
> I guess the next question would be whether the light from the headlamps would
> travel at twice the speed of light or just as fast as the vehicle travelling
Nothing (sensible) can travel at or greater than the speed of light
according to the Special theory of Relativity. Hence the light beam would
move at the same speed as the car. This is a direct consequence of the
results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, where they split a beam of
light before routing the two halves by different means of different
lengths to the same end.
> at the speed of light, thus not casting any forward beam and necessitating
> turning on the lights before you start travelling just to give the headlight
> beams a head start. If the light travels at twice the speed of light, you'd
It's impossible to accelerate anything to the speed of light. You'd need
an infinite amount of power to do so. The best we can do is to assume that
we can approximate it as closely as we like. The only exceptions to this
are things like photons (pieces of light) which come into existence
travelling at the speed of light.
Just something to bear in mind.
> need contrabass lamps that generate light at half the frequency of normally
> visible light, otherwise the 2x light would be at a higher frequency than
> normal visible light. Or is it all relative. Personally I think you'd need to
> give your high beams a GOOD head start, particularly since you're travelling
> at the speed of light. What kind of reaction time would you need to avoid
> collision?!!
Well, if I remember rightly, the length between you and the potential
collidee (collisor? collatrix? no idea) would contract to nothing at c
(the speed of light). This is because the term sqrt(1- v²/c²) (v is
your velocity) in the denominator of the Lorentz transformation becomes
zero. A photon is conjectured to be a massless object, which gives the
troublesome value of 0/0 for length contraction.
> Also, does an object travelling at the speed of light toward an observer look
> like a black hole or does that object's light frequency (color) become twice
> as high due to Doppler Effect?
I wouldn't have imagined that you could see it, as the light couldn't move
away from it fast enough. Again, this is impossible for an object larger
than entirely piddly.
> And when the object passes the viewer, is there an effect similar to a sonic
> boom, only on a higher, visible frequency??? Yikes!
The speed of sound isn't a fundamental limit in the universe, so we can
make things reach or exceed it. The speed of light is quite different as
explained above. I'm not sure what the theoretical effect would be, but
I've got a feeling that the screwy rules of Relativity would spoil the fun.
> > >From the perspective of a stationary observer watching the vehicle go
> > speeding past, there is no light visible from the headlights, since the
> > speed of light is an absolute maximum, and the light can't travel faster
> > than the vehicle in order to get ahead of it.
>
> Or can it? It's like throwing a ball forward from a moving vehicle, right? Or
> not?
Not.
> > Einstein's Theory of Relativity applies here. The two different
> > observations are relative to the position of the observers, and the
> > apparent contradiction is explained by the way time itself is affected by
> > how fast something is traveling.
>
> Time travels quickly when you're having fun at the speed of light.
> Or at least it seems to!
> It's all relative, I guess. I never understood the time part of the theory.
It's all a bit silly really. I understood our Special Relativity course in
my 1st year here at Warwick (2 years ago) well enough to get 86% on
it. The Relativistic Cosmology course I was examined on last week was half
philosophy, half stupid fiddly unexplained Maths that was simply not
possible to take in in the limited timescale I'd left myself (one day
:-) ). Luckily the lecturer set two Philosophy-type questions.
Dave Taylor
***End of Contrabass Digest***

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