This article is about a phenomenon in physics and a character trait. For other uses, see Heterodyne (disambiguation).

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Heterodyning^[1] is the combination of two or more frequencies to create new and different ones. It is also an extremely complex way of humming, which appears to aid Heterodynes in concentration and allow them to think more clearly.

The habit appears to be instinctive for members of the Heterodyne family, and in fact was the most obvious sign ✣ of Agatha Heterodyne's imminent breakthrough. However, it can also be reproduced mechanically ✣ , and might be imitable from memory. ✣

One interesting machine-based instance of heterodyning that appears to have gone unnoticed is during the downloading of Lucrezia/Other into Agatha.  The summoning machine produces a small amount of heterodyning music as part of the process ✣ . This opens up a big question regarding the connection between Other-tech and Heterodyne-tech and leads us back to the old question of what Lucrezia was doing when everything went all pear shaped.

See also Edit

• Forum:Tarvek's humming — discussion of whether (and how) Tarvek reproduces the music.
• Overtone singing — a real-world activity that happens to be best known in central Asia.

References

1. ↑ first seen when Agatha figured out the Baron's project for Dr. Beetle wouldn't work. ✣