Musical Pitch Related to Color

Light is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum, higher in frequency than radio waves, but below X-rays. Wavelengths we can see are between approximately 380nm and 780nm. Curiously, the spectrum of visible light, between ultraviolet and infrared, is almost exactly an octave, with the visible edge of ultraviolet having double the frequency (and half the wavelength) of the visible edge of infrared. I took a C program I had written to compute the frequencies of all the notes on a piano, and modified it to output the frequency and wavelength of the harmonic in light that corresponds to each musical pitch (for any octave).

Corresponding light-spectrum harmonics were computed from equal temperament musical pitches, using a reference of A440 and a half-step frequency ratio of 21/12. Given the speed of light, C = 299792458 meters/second, and λ=C/F, wavelengths were computed for each frequency. The 780.75nm "F" falls outside of the 380-780nm range but I added it for interest. Note that exactly 12 pitches fit within the range. The light spectrum "C" is 41 octaves above middle-C.

F -- 349.228231 Hz ~ 383.980501 THz ~ 780.749171 nm
F# -- 369.994423 Hz ~ 406.813170 THz ~ 736.929087 nm
G -- 391.995436 Hz ~ 431.003540 THz ~ 695.568436 nm
G# -- 415.304698 Hz ~ 456.632344 THz ~ 656.529179 nm
A -- 440.000000 Hz ~ 483.785116 THz ~ 619.681028 nm
Bflat -- 466.163762 Hz ~ 512.552476 THz ~ 584.901004 nm
B -- 493.883301 Hz ~ 543.030432 THz ~ 552.073033 nm
C -- 523.251131 Hz ~ 575.320702 THz ~ 521.087555 nm
C# -- 554.365262 Hz ~ 609.531052 THz ~ 491.841158 nm
D -- 587.329536 Hz ~ 645.775654 THz ~ 464.236235 nm
Eflat -- 622.253967 Hz ~ 684.175473 THz ~ 438.180657 nm
E -- 659.255114 Hz ~ 724.858663 THz ~ 413.587466 nm
F -- 698.456463 Hz ~ 767.961002 THz ~ 390.374586 nm

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