Recommended reading for those who want to delve deeper into the meaning of the octave:
Nearly All and Almost Everything: The Gurdjieff Work, The Hebrew Kaballah, The Indian Shrutis, and The Musical Tree of Life by Mitzi DeWhitt
The Basics - Part 6: The Number 8 and the Law of Octaves (continued)
In Part 6, Segment I, we discussed Symmetry and Renewal
A. Religion and Divination
B. Architecture and Planning
Let's continue with:
Segment II: Eight as Resonance in Music, Science, and Sports
C. Music
Of course, the octave of music we talked about in Part 6, Segment 1 gets its name from the number 8. Sometimes abbreviated 8ve or P8, the octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. This is 8 notes if one counts both ends, hence the name "octave", from the Latin octavus, from octo (meaning "eight").
Photo source: http://www.lgonzalez.net
D. General Science and Technology
8 is the basis for the octal number system used in computation. One digit in octal represents 3 bits of information. In today's computers, a byte is a group of 8 bits and is also called an octet.
There are 8 furlongs in a mile, 8 pints in a gallon, 8 fluid ounces in a cup, 8 tablespoons in a gill, and about 8 pinches in a teaspoon.
The well-known V-8 internal combustion engine has two rows of 4 cylinders in a “V” shape when seen in cross-section.
E. Sports
8-Ball Billiards is played with 15 balls. The most important is the black number 8 ball. It's the middle ball in the number sequence of 15.
In skating, a “figure 8” is the name for a specific geometric shape a skater can perform.
“Figure 8” is also the name used to denote a type of rope knot often used by mountain climbers.
The Laws of Octaves in Chemistry
English chemist John Newlands (1837-1898), having arranged the 62 known elements in order of increasing atomic weights, noted that after interval of eight elements similar physical/chemical properties reappeared. Newlands was the first to formulate the concept of periodicity in the properties of the chemical elements. In 1863 he wrote a paper proposing the Law of Octaves: Elements exhibit similar behavior to the eighth element following it in the table.
Later, the Periodic Table of Elements was modified by Mendeleev, Moseley, and others, and elements were added. But, as we can see, the periodicity based on 8 still remains:
The main group elements are in the "A" groups. There are eight main groups from 1A through 8A. The main group's elements also start at the top or first period in the table.
Why are there eight groups of representative elements?
The main periods of the periodic table are eight elements long because they match the filling of the eight spaces for electrons in an [atom's]...subshells…. The "s" subshell can hold two electrons, while the "p" subshell can hold six electrons, for a total of eight.
8 is the maximum number of electrons that can occupy the outer, or valence, shell of an atom.
It's interesting to note that oxygen, an element that is in air, water, and earth, and is so vitally necessary for all living things, has an atomic number of 8 and is also the 8th element in the Periodic Table of Elements. It has 8 electrons (6 in the outer valence shell, and 2 in the inner shell), and its nucleus consists of 8 protons and 8 neutrons.
Below is a representation of the oxygen atom, not what it actually looks like:
Source: www.webelements.com
Resonance and the Law of Octaves in the Game of Chess
“Eight is the prime archetype of resonance, the means whereby specific vibrations influence each other. … Eights demonstrate the upward spiral of growth and evolution, each new round transcending and including what went before. … With its 64 black and white squares, and two sets of 16 pieces, chess offers a … level of symbolic and metaphorical interaction between pieces, positions and rules. Amongst other qualities, the chessboard itself integrates the solar hierarchy of the pieces, the world represented by the board, and the 28 lunar mansions of the perimeter. The pieces follow an evolutionary hierarchy representing human development as well as rulership, set in the context of lunar cycles. Thus it reflects the resonance of Eight on several interlocking levels.”
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