Olympics: Michael Phelps wins 19th medal, becomes most decorated athlete in Olympics history

LONDON -- Michael Phelps' historic 19th Olympic medal was pure gold Tuesday night at the Aquatics Centre. Phelps became the most decorated Olympian ever by anchoring the United States to a commanding victory in the 800-meter freestyle relay less than an hour after he lost a heartbreaking race. On a night Phelps got touched out at the wall in the 200 butterfly by South Africa's Chad le Clos, the Baltimore swimmer rebounded to remind the world his time has not passed. Phelps leaped past Larisa Latynina, an 18-medal winner in gymnastics for the former Soviet Union from 1956 and 1964. Latynina, 77, had planned to watch Phelps after attending the women's team final in gymnastics not far from Olympic Park. Phelps had trouble describing his emotions afterward but he left no doubt how Wholesale Soccer Jerseys much he appreciated being able to share the moment with teammates. The swimmer huddled with the others afterward to thank them for being part of history. "There's no better feeling than to do it with those guys," he said. Phelps acknowledged feeling uptight at the start of the London Games -- and it showed when he finished a disappointing fourth in the 400 individual medley on the opening night of swimming. The more he began to relax, the better Phelps has performed. His teammates have taken notice. Phelps is "a little more like a human and not a machine this time," his coach Bob Bowman said. Phelps swam a brilliant leg in the 400 relay Sunday when France's Yannick Agnel chased down Ryan Lochte to win in the final 25 meters. With all the pre-Olympic hyperbole about the Phelps-Ryan Lochte rivalry, the Americans worked together to enjoy the momentous race Tuesday. Lochte gave the United States a strong lead — just as Phelps had requested beforehand. "We all wanted to get him a big lead so when Michael dove in he wouldn't have to work," Lochte said. "Any time you can make history it's incredible." Not that Phelps just cruised through the two laps without straining. He maintained the big margin to make sure his record medal became his 15th gold one. The United States led from the start to finish in 6 minutes, 59.70 seconds. France finished second while China took third. In Beijing, Phelps became the first swimmer to win eight gold medals and has been Germany Euro 2012 Jersey a bona fide celebrity since. Now he has secured a place in sport that won't soon be forgotten. For all the accolades, Bowman found the most satisfaction from how Phelps reacted to a bitter defeat in the 200 butterfly, an event he had won at two consecutive Olympics. Four years ago Phelps barely touched the wall ahead of Cal graduate Milorad Cavic in the 100 butterfly by finishing on a full stroke. Tuesday night he miscalculated the final stroke as le Clos struck first to win in 1:52.96, well off Phelps' world record of 1:51.51. Phelps got the silver in a time of 1:53.01. "Phelps is my hero and I love the guy," le Clos said. "To beat him, I can't believe it. You don't understand what this means to me. This is the greatest moment of my life." It was not Phelps' favorite memory. But his teammates expected something special in the relay. "A mad Michael Phelps is a good one to have in the pool," teammate Ricky Berens of Charlotte, N.C., said. But by the time Phelps started to prepare for the relay he looked fine. That left Bowman happy. He has coached the swimmer for 17 years, a remarkable streak of its own in a sport where frequent coaching changes is the norm. "It showed how much he has matured and understands what this is all about," Bowman said. The coach couldn't help but reflect on meeting a 10-year kid at a club pool in suburban Baltimore. "He just had something different," Bowman said. "It was hard to define." It has been difficult for Phelps in his fourth Olympics, but in a way he and his coach are appreciating the experience all the more. They never set out to break Latynina's record. They just wanted to swim fast. Many say Phelps' final count after the London Games will last a long time. Phelps, though, isn't as confident. "Nothing is untouchable," he said. Phelps knows that better than most.

Exponential Growth And Music

A sequence of numbers increases or decreases exponentially when you get each number from the previous one in the sequence by multiplying it by a particular number. For example, the sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 is generated by multiplying by 2. This number you multiply by obviously changes for different sequences.Some people claim that mathematicians are often good musicians, although if you ever heard me play the piano, you might not agree! Using music to introduce exponential growth follows a valuable theme: there is a mathematical pattern in something we can recognize around us. Most of us can hear an octave in music, or a dominant chord or a subdominant, even though we may not be able to put a name to any of them. So, something around us fits a pattern; that pattern is about to be revealed.When a symphony orchestra tunes up, one instrument, usually an oboe, plays a note and the other instruments tune relative to it. That note is the A-above-middle-C which sounds when air vibrates at 440 beats per second. A note one octave (8 notes or 13 semitones) below this is heard when air vibrates at 220 beats per second (220 is half of 440). An octave above the A will vibrate at 880 beats per France Euro 2012 Jersey second. The twelve spaces between the thirteen semitones of a scale are equally divided these days. This division is called equal temperament and is what J. S. Bach meant when he used the title The Well-Tempered Clavier for one of his major works.The technical term for beats per second is Hertz; A has 440 Hertz (Hz).As each note rises in pitch by one semitone, the number of beats per second increases by 1.0595 times. If you want to check the figures in the list below, you might like to take this increase as 1.0594631.Here is a list of the beats per second for each of the notes (semitones) in a scale starting at A. The figures are to the nearest whole number. Note that the sequence of numbers is an exponential sequence with a common ratio of 1.0594631. Who would have guessed?A is 220 Hz, A# is 233, B is 247, C is 262, C# is 277, D is 294, D# is 311, E is 330, F is 349, F# is 370, G is 392, G# is 415, A is 440.For the musical fuss-pots among you, note that I had to put D# rather than E flat because there is a symbol for sharp - the hash sign - on a keyboard, but not one for flat.When playing music in the key of A, the other key you are most likely to drift into from time to time is E, or the Dominant key of A which is what it is called. If you want to make a grand final bar or two to your next piece of music, you will probably finish with the chord of E (or E7) followed by the final chord of A.Another interesting point here is that the key signature of A is 3 sharps, while the key signature of E is 4 sharps. More of that later.There is a lovely word in English: sesquipedalian. Sesqui is a Latin prefix meaning one and a half, while pedalian gives us feet. Notice the word pedal here. So the word means one and a half feet (in length) and is used sarcastically of people who use long words when shorter words will do. Yet another aside here Germany Euro 2012 Jersey is that the word sesquipedaliophobia means a fear of long words. Sesquipedaliophobics will not know that, of course!Now back to music: sesqui, or the ratio of 2:3 takes us from the beats per second of a key, to the hertz of its dominant key. A has 220 Hz. Increase it in the ratio 2:3 and you get 330, the Hz of E, the dominant key of A.The fun continues! Look at the Hertz of the note D in the list above - 294 - and sesqui it, increase it in the ratio 2:3. You will get 294 + 147 = 441 (it should be 440, but we are approximating). So? A is the dominant key of D, and Ds key signature has 2 sharps to As 3.To summarize: here are the keys in sharp order, starting with C which has no sharps in its key signature, and increasing by one sharp at a time (G has one sharp).C, G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#. That will do. Notice they go up by the musical interval of a 5th. To go downwards from C, you take away a sharp, or in other words, you add a flat.I do not have space to show you how to tune a guitar, but it is related to this work and is a lot clearer because you can see the relationships of the keys on the fret-board. Perhaps another article later?