Like for example when I’m listening to an orchestra I can hear a clarinet and a violin quite distinctly from one another, but they’re both sounds vibrating through the same air. Logically, shouldn’t one air only be able to carry one frequency (Vibrate in only one way)? How does the air contain so many frequencies simultaneously?
In: 80
Let’s simplify the question and ignore the notions of timbre, harmonics and fundamental frequencies to avoid technical words.
If we just ask, how can we hear 2 notes at the same time with just one air it becomes very simple to illustrate.
A note is just how many times per second the air is moving next to your ear, making your eardrum move at the same rate. The faster, the higher the pitch and vice versa.
Now imagine that you are holding a rope and you wiggle your arm up and down say twice per second. It will create this wave pattern all along the rope (if you can’t visualise it just try it!). This is one note (2 time per second note).
Now if you were to jump up and down once every second while still wiggling your arm twice per second you will keep the small wiggle in the rope, but your jumping will add a bigger wiggle every second time and create a different pattern (where every second swing in the rope a twice as big).
You can imagine an infinite combination of wiggles that creates different wave shapes along the rope. Your brain learns along your life that these patterns come from such and such noises and makes out the “sound meaning” for you.
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