The noise of building sites is annoying to most people's ears. It occurred to me, whilst being distracted by a particularly obstreperous drill'n'sander duet, that much of the distress caused is not by the volume or timbre of the equipment used, but by the dissonant sounds produced by different tools.
Why then, not tune everything on a building site so that it all resonates in harmony? This will obviously be more difficult with some machines than others - e.g. those which vary significantly with friction will need some kind of compensatory facility to maintain constant pitch.
Sites would then use, for example, 'C' drills, 'E' sanders, and 'G' cutters, so that they all form a simple major chord. More interesting would be appliances with settable pitch, so that they could be tuned to the mood of the day - when it's summery then a good old F Major chord would do the trick, but if everyone's hungover and it's overcast then perhaps an E Minor would be more appropriate.-- -alx, Aug 19 2002 Casinos in the Key of C http://www.techtv.c...330,3387280,00.html [half, Aug 19 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] Random Music Generator http://www.halfbake...20Music_20GeneratorPut this on and you're done. [waugsqueke, Aug 22 2002] It could sound a lot like casinos which are apparently tuned to the key of C. (link)-- half, Aug 19 2002 Yeah but then you'd just get realllllly annoyed with one chord being played practically all day really loudly.Sorry fishbone.-- kaz, Aug 19 2002 Warning on industrial sander:
Do not allow sanding disc to come into contact with power chord.-- Guy Fox, Aug 19 2002 [Guy Fox]: (Insert symbol for applause here.)-- angel, Aug 20 2002 I like it. If only it were possible to do it for primary school bands also.-- madradish, Aug 20 2002 Croissant. Alternatively, rather than ringing building sites with that orange plastic netting, enclose them in soundproofed walls. Then they can make as much noise in as many discordant keys as they choose.-- trifling matter, Aug 20 2002 Is it the tool or the material on which the tool is tooling that makes the louder sound? Of course, I'm sure you realize why you don't want the building materials themselves to be tuned.-- beauxeault, Aug 20 2002 I wonder if John Cage felt like dancing when he walked past a construction site.-- beauxeault, Aug 20 2002 <mildly offtopic>I've always made it a habit to try and find the bathroom stall's resonance notes. They're quite pretty sometimes.</mildly offtopic>
Um, with my voice, that is...-- RayfordSteele, Aug 22 2002 Bob the builder...Can we fix it? Bob the builder... Wait, madradish already did that bit.-- BinaryCookies, Aug 22 2002 random, halfbakery