On Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 9:27 AM, Fons Adriaensen <fons(a)linuxaudio.org>wrote;wrote:
Violins (and many other instruments) can and do produce harmonics
above 20 kHz. As long as these are vibrations inside the instrument
they could even interact in non-linear ways and produce something that
is audible. Once they are 'in the air', they don't interact and you
can't hear them.
although i'm skeptical, i'm willing to leave a tiny amount of doubt in the
air. i think the evidence is clear that we cannot hear these frequencies.
there is some slightly woo-ish stuff about how they might still interact
with us physically and contribute something to the experience of being "in
the presence of" the live instrument(s). i suspect its totally bogus, but i
also don't think that the science has been done to clearly establish that
it is, and that 22kHz is a hard limit for human experience, not just human
hearing.