Prime Tones — 11 and 13

a listening bench · nothing here is wired into the lab

The standing proposal is that 11 and 13 take the first two notes an octave up. The problem is that an octave is perceptually the same note: 11 will sound like 2, and 13 like 3. That might read as a second family of primes, which would be lovely — or it might just be confusing.

Three alternatives are here too. Switch schemes while listening; the comparison pairs are the fastest way to hear it.

Scheme

The six primes

2 · 3 · 5 · 7 are fixed — they are what the lab already sounds. Only 11 and 13 change.

Hear them side by side

In a number

The question to answer: with 11 and 13 in the set, can a child tell six primes apart — or does she hear four, twice?

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