Acoustics & Music Theory
why it sounds like that
Generator

3 against 2

Two evenly spaced pulses over the same span, one in 3 and one in 2. They agree only where both grids land together, and the gap between agreements is the least common multiple — which is what makes one polyrhythm sound like a shape and another like two unrelated things.
3 against 2. Two evenly spaced pulses over the same span, one in 3 and one in 2. They agree only where both grids land together, and the gap between agreements is the least common multiple — which is what makes one polyrhythm sound like a shape and another like two unrelated things.

Drawn above with its standard settings, which is almost never how an essay draws it: an essay states the numbers it is arguing about, so the figure a reader meets there is about that argument rather than about the drawing in general. Every option a placement passes is checked against the ones this function actually reads, because an option it does not read is silently ignored and the figure quietly draws what is above instead.

It makes a noise. 7 of its 7 placements carry sound, built from the same numbers as the drawing, offering these buttons: 12 against 7, 3 against 2, 4 against 3, 5 against 3, 5 against 4, just the 12, just the 2, just the 3 and 3 more.

Called by 1 essay

the blast radius of changing it

3 against 2. Two evenly spaced pulses over the same span, one in 3 and one in 2. They agree only where both grids land together, and the gap between agreements is the least common multiple — which is what makes one polyrhythm sound like a shape and another like two unrelated things.

Two clocks at once, and where they agree

Three against two repeats every six subdivisions and feels like a figure. Seven against five repeats every thirty-five and feels like weather. The difference is one number.

rhythm · Polyrhythm

All figures · What can be heard