Thank you for illustrating rather difficult concepts in your Tutorials using simple and essential language. When one succeeds in "simplifying" scientific and other concepts that are very complex, there is great and profound preparation behind it. Compliments.. and we look forward to more lessons.
The definition of noise struck me because it took me back in time to when I attended Musicology courses at the University of Macerata. That day, Prof. Francesco Moiso, lecturer in General and Musical Aesthetics, told a funny anecdote. Among the many definitions of noise: "everything that disturbs our listening". Well, the Professor remembered attending a lecture as a young man where the listening to a work by Cage, titled "sounds of 5th Avenue", was proposed. One can well imagine the "contemporary" content of the composition which included engines, voices, horns, etc... The classroom where the lesson took place was in front of a house where four talented musicians were rehearsing a Mozart quartet. The music inevitably entered the classroom and the Lecturer was forced, on that hot Summer day, to close the windows. At that moment, the Mozart quartet disturbed the listening....good heavens!!!! The Mozart quartet had become "noise"......Ahhh, these philosophers!!!!!!
Indeed, giving a correct definition of noise is a very difficult thing. The ironic anecdote you told is actually a striking example of this. How can a Mozart quartet be classified as noise? Therefore, behind a definition of noise as "that which bothers the ear," I believe you will agree with me that there is a very subtle, subjective meaning, and if we want, it varies according to the "onomatopoeia of the ear." In fact, I believe that more than anything else, it is the ear that suggests to us what is noise and what is not, beyond formalized definitions. In essence, it is much simpler to understand for oneself what is noise rather than describing it in words; we could see it, just to draw a parallel in a scientific context, as a primitive concept for which no precise formal definition exists. Moreover, it is a concept that adapts to various situations. In the field of studio recording, there is white noise, which is that non-eliminable background hiss that can be reduced to a minimum through expensive equipment and high-quality microphones but is still there! In the piano, there is the noise of the mechanics. These are just a few examples of how noise is practically always present in every existing application of acoustics and more, as an ineliminable but attenuable variable through precautions, most of the time very expensive...
