As per my campaign promise, I’ll be including something interesting in every email I send you. I have a grand narrative I’d like to play out over the emails, but that won’t begin until the year starts in earnest. Anyway, here’s today’s interesting thing. The Shepard Tone is a kind of illusion in which a sound appears to be increasing or decreasing in pitch constantly, though it is actually looping back to its start. Here’s an example. After you listen to that, here’s a video explaining how it works and showing some more examples. Finally, here’s a song I like that uses the Shepard Tone. I’d recommend listening to the whole song, but if you don’t want to, use of the Shepard Tone in it starts at 7:17.

Best,

Lev Bernstein

Secretary, 2020-2021, Quiz Bowl at NYU