Thursday, April 14, 2011

1951 HZ

I drive a 2005 Prius that just crossed the 100,000 mile mark.   My total cost of owning the car has been very low.  My mileage has averaged 50mpg.   I'm very satisfied.

In Masaschusetts, license plates from 2005 are of the form  xxxx yy.  My license plate 1951 HZ is purely random.   Recently, someone with a musical bent asked me:

"You're a thoughtful person.  I'm sure your personalized license plate has some profound meaning.   What subtle and amazing thing happens at a frequency of 1951 Hertz (HZ)?"

Ok, I need some help here.   I've done my best to search the web for phenomenon that occur between 1900 and 2000 Hertz.   Here's what I've found so far:

*It's a common form of audio tone remote control  from the 1970s.

*It's a common frequency of frog mating calls.

*It's the frequency of the humpback whale grunt.

*It's the frequency of alveolar nasal consonants (such as when you say "mmmmm").

*It's a point in the audio spectrum used to analyze noise induced hearing loss.

Ok, so far, my profound license plate has me
1. walking into a swamp and asking some wayward frog to hop down to my place
2. getting the attention of a distracted humpback whale
3. having my nasal consonants misunderstood by folks who frequent rock concerts.

I welcome your help - my car needs a sublime story as to why 1951 HZ says something about me, the human condition, or the natural world.   Comments welcome!

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