Scientific impossibilities in music

The Beatles' song "Eight Days a Week" sounds uncomfortably like "110%" (ick ick ick) but it works if we go back to ancient Rome, when the civil week was eight days long.
 
aggle-rithm said:
As a former music major, I was intrigued by your thread title -- but then I found that what you really meant was "Scientific impossibilities in lyrics".

A scientific impossibility in music would be a high C played by a contrabassoon.

Oh, well.
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Dang! Guess I screwed up another thread title.

hehe Sorry for the confusion, but thanks for the input :)
 
TV's Frank said:
Isn't a "scientific impossibility" just an "impossibility"?
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LOL Now your just nit picking!

But erm...Would not being able to scratch your right elbow with your right hand be a scientific impossibility, or a physical impossibility? Or Both?

OK, it's not from a song, but best I could come up with on short notice. :)
 
This Guy said:
But erm...Would not being able to scratch your right elbow with your right hand be a scientific impossibility, or a physical impossibility? Or Both?
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I think it would be an impossibility! I guess I just don't dig the "scientific" qualifier...if something is impossibile, it's just plain ol' impossibile. I wonder: what would be a "religious impossibility"?
 
Oh, it's not impossible at all.

Just cut of your right hand, then grab it and use it to scratch the right elbow. :p


A tad more seriously, I'd say that it's practically impossible for me or anyone else to do the trick properly, but as far as I'm aware, there is no science that says it could -never- happen (for example by evolving short underarms and long and more flexible hands). I'd say that there's a difference here, I just don't know what to call this difference. You know what I mean anyway, I hope.
 
This Guy said:
I think one reason this error strikes me so strong (no pun intended) is because I learned back when I was like 12 (that was around 1966) that you could judge the distance of a storm by measuring the time between the lightning and the thunder, and multiplying it by what ever the speed of sound in miles/min is (that was the way the article in the science mag I read it in showed it I believe).
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Yep I learned the same thing. The hard part is making sure you match the correct lighting flash with the correct thunder. When the thunder is rolling in due to bolt after bolt after bolt it's a bit difficult to be sure, thunder from the back of the storm that rolls over you just as lighting from the front of the storm flashes can make the front of the storm seem closer than it really is.
 
TV's Frank said:
Isn't a "scientific impossibility" just an "impossibility"?
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Scientific impossibilities wear white lab coats and thick eyeglasses. They're commonly found near microscopes or arrays of glassware filled with brightly colored water. When you meet them on on the tennis court you'd never know they were scientific.
 
tkingdoll said:
Talk about bah humbug. Artists use artistic license.
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I love music, and I allow for artistic license. But the line from the OP being in the chorus, and repeated so often in the song, plus the blatant error, just really caught my ear, so to speak. Just got me to wondering how many other boo boos were being sung out there also.

And again, I basically like the song! I like a lot Sheryl Crow's music. Didn't know it was her till it was pointed out though :)
 
Maybe I'm too much of a geek, but I assumed the out-of-orderness in the lyric was intentional, to talk about something being off. I haven't listened to the lyrics closely enough to see if that makes sense, though...
 
Meffy said:
The Beatles' song "Eight Days a Week" sounds uncomfortably like "110%" (ick ick ick) but it works if we go back to ancient Rome, when the civil week was eight days long.
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I think their days are 21 hours long.
 
Billy Joel spoke of Billy the Kid being a legend in his time "east and west of the Rio Grande". Bit of a problem since the river doesn't go north and south.
 
gnome said:
Billy Joel spoke of Billy the Kid being a legend in his time "east and west of the Rio Grande". Bit of a problem since the river doesn't go north and south.
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Been a fan of Joel since he first hit the radio. I've heard (have it on CD somewhere I think) that song, but never realized that, or just never made the connection. Good catch :)

There's probably a lot of little things like that that we hear, and either don't notice, or don't think about.
 
gnome said:
Billy Joel spoke of Billy the Kid being a legend in his time "east and west of the Rio Grande". Bit of a problem since the river doesn't go north and south.
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Well, it does Northwest/Southeast along most of the Texas/Mexico border, even turning North/South in some places. So, he could be referring to Texas and Mexico. Or something.
 
aggle-rithm said:
As a former music major, I was intrigued by your thread title -- but then I found that what you really meant was "Scientific impossibilities in lyrics".

A scientific impossibility in music would be a high C played by a contrabassoon.

Oh, well.
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A low C (in the contrabassoon range) on a clarinet is scientifically impossible. A high C played by a contrabassoon is just practically impossible. :p
 
gnome said:
Billy Joel spoke of Billy the Kid being a legend in his time "east and west of the Rio Grande". Bit of a problem since the river doesn't go north and south.
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Y'all aint from New Mexico, then, air ya?
Rio Grande flows from its source in Colorado, South into New mexico, wanders a lottle bit East and West, and at Albuquerque, runs pretty much due South to El Paso, where it turns E-Se, to Big Bend, where it goes North East a little, then back to SE to the Gulf.
Please look at a map before spouting off about things you know nothing about..
Billy was raised in Silver City, did his dirty deeds in Lincoln County, and Died just East of the Pecos....All in the State of New Mexico

ETA the All in New Mexico
 
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