Combining Yellow and Blue light does not give green light. It makes white light. Light is additive color mixing. 'Yellow and blue make green' only refers to paint. If i have paint that reflects yellow, in actuality it ABSORBS all other colors besides yellow (subtractive color mixing). So by mixing paints I DECREASE the spectrum of light that is reflected, and get green.
Adding waves isn't as simple as averaging the frequency. Mixing two waves with different frequencies actually gives a wave with two parts: one part that is the average frequency, like you said, and another part that is the difference between the frequencies, which creates "beating."
More here: http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/demos/superposition/superposition.html
So yes, the result is a wave that has a frequency similar to a 'B' when you hit those two notes at the same time, but it sounds different because of beating. Real music is also comprised of a bunch of different harmonics and beats, it's not just pure sine waves for each note. So you get a much more complex sound by hitting chords.
Combining Yellow and Blue light does not give green light. It makes white light. Light is additive color mixing. 'Yellow and blue make green' only refers to paint. If i have paint that reflects yellow, in actuality it ABSORBS all other colors besides yellow (subtractive color mixing). So by mixing paints I DECREASE the spectrum of light that is reflected, and get green.
Adding waves isn't as simple as averaging the frequency. Mixing two waves with different frequencies actually gives a wave with two parts: one part that is the average frequency, like you said, and another part that is the difference between the frequencies, which creates "beating."
More here: http://www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/demos/superposition/superposition.html
So yes, the result is a wave that has a frequency similar to a 'B' when you hit those two notes at the same time, but it sounds different because of beating. Real music is also comprised of a bunch of different harmonics and beats, it's not just pure sine waves for each note. So you get a much more complex sound by hitting chords.