If you are mathematically inclined, this might help. It's how I, as a non-musician, came to understand tuning a little.
Equal temperament uses frequencies that are scaled by powers of the twelfth root of 2. Moving up one semitone is the same as multiplying the frequency by 2^(1/12). If you look at this table
you can see how the resulting values approximate certain ratios. Ratios matter because two tones that are related by a simple ratio will tend to have greater harmonic relationship and be more 'consonant'.
Other tunings emphasize different ratios and give up the equal spacing of notes -- equal spacing when plotted by frequency on a logarithmic scale.
Comments
If you are mathematically inclined, this might help. It's how I, as a non-musician, came to understand tuning a little.
Equal temperament uses frequencies that are scaled by powers of the twelfth root of 2. Moving up one semitone is the same as multiplying the frequency by 2^(1/12). If you look at this table
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament#Comparison_to...
you can see how the resulting values approximate certain ratios. Ratios matter because two tones that are related by a simple ratio will tend to have greater harmonic relationship and be more 'consonant'.
Other tunings emphasize different ratios and give up the equal spacing of notes -- equal spacing when plotted by frequency on a logarithmic scale.