Re: [math-fun] The Saddest Thing about the Integers

I don't find this good popular math at all. The article never explains why a non-UFD would enable us to "tune pianos". The problem is that simple fractions like 3/2 are not exact powers of 2^(1/12). How would non-unique factorization fix that? --Dan

On Dec 2, 2014, at 5:31 AM, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:

FYI -- Many/most of you may know this stuff, but I found it an interesting angle on the problem of musical tuning.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/2014/11/30/the-saddest-th...

The Saddest Thing I Know about the Integers

By Evelyn Lamb | November 30, 2014

The integers are a unique factorization domain, so we can’t tune pianos. That is the saddest thing I know about the integers. . . .