Mars tuning fork — 144.72 Hz

144.72 Hz is the tone of Mars: one orbit around the Sun in 686.98 days, almost two Earth years. In tradition it stands for action, will and moving forward.

The whole of Mars, a daily global image from Hubble · NASA/JPL, public domain

Frequency (middle octave)	144.72 Hz
Note	D · −25 cents from standard tuning A = 440 Hz
Tuning in which this is an exact note	A = 433.67 Hz
Cycle	orbit around the Sun686.98 days
Doublings from the cycle's frequency	33
Color (the same frequency as light)	blue · 471 nm
Paint on the Acutonics tuning fork	redshade measured from photos in the school's catalog — this is NOT the computed colorcolor name “Red” — school page · Acutonics Canada
What can be checked	Reproducible

Mars has a feature that matters in practice: together with Om it gives a difference of 8.62 Hz, and this is the only classic Acutonics interval whose pulsation can be heard clearly. The other well-known intervals are too wide: their difference falls outside the band in which the ear can still make out a beat.

The frequency ratio of Om and Mars is 1.063, a tense second. A combination like that cannot be cozy by definition, and tradition accordingly credits it with mobilizing rather than calming.

How this number is obtained

The axis is logarithmic: each doubling raises the sound by exactly one octave. The pitch goes up, the note stays the same.

Given: the period of Mars

686.98 days = 59 355 072 seconds

1The frequency of the cycle itself: how many times it repeats per second

1 ÷ 59 355 072 = 0.000 000 016 848the same in short form: 1.68 × 10⁻⁸ Hz

A tiny number that cannot be heard: human hearing starts at about 20 Hz. But it is a real frequency, and we can keep working with it.

2Raising it into the audible range: each doubling is one octave up

0.000 000 016 848 × 2 = 0.000 000 033 6961st doubling

0.000 000 033 696 × 2 = 0.000 000 067 3912nd doubling

0.000 000 067 391 × 2 = 0.000 000 134 783rd doubling

⋮29 more doublings just like these

72.36 × 2 = 144.7233rd doubling: now it is in the middle fork band

Or, in a single line:

0.000 000 016 848 × 2³³ = 144.72 Hz

where 2³³ = 8 589 934 592, the number of times the frequency has grown

The value Cousto published is 144.72 Hz. It matches.

3Which note it is

12 × log₂(144.72 ÷ 440) = −19.25semitones from A

nearest whole number: −19 = Dand that is the note

remainder: −0.25 of a semitone = −25 centshow far the tone is from the note

One hundred cents make one semitone. Planetary frequencies almost never land exactly on a note: orbits know nothing about musical tuning.

4In which tuning it would be an exact note

144.72 ÷ 2^(−19 ÷ 12) = 433.67 Hz

An ordinary piano is tuned to A = 440 Hz. Here the tone gets a tuning of its own, and for the Om tone it is exactly the much-discussed 432 Hz.

5Color: the same frequency raised all the way to light

144.72 × 2⁴² = 636 490 372 094 185 Hzthat is 6.36 × 10¹⁴ Hz, already visible light

299 792 458 ÷ 636 490 372 094 185 = 471 nmwavelength → blue

Divide the speed of light by the frequency and you get the wavelength. This is a model, not the measured color of a planet, but the arithmetic is exactly the same as for sound.

Octave ladder

Octave	Frequency	How it is used
2^30	18.09 Hz	below or at the edge of hearing
2^31	36.18 Hz	below or at the edge of hearing
2^32	72.36 Hz	low: stronger vibration on the body
2^33	144.72 Hz	the main tuning fork
2^34	289.44 Hz	high: work in the field above the body
2^35	578.88 Hz	high: work in the field above the body

What tradition ascribes

Tradition

Drive, will, breaking out of stagnation.

This is a system of correspondences, not the result of a measurement: controlled studies of planetary frequencies do not exist. We present the tradition because it exists and the practice is built on it — but we call it tradition.

Intervals with this tone

Interval	Pair	Ratio	Difference
Om / Mars 2	Om + Mars	1.063	8.62 Hz
Mars / Venus 5	Mars + Venus	1.529	76.51 Hz

All frequencies in one chart · how the calculation works · what has been proven