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This chapter draws attention to sound as a comparative object in the applied sciences at the turn of the twentieth century. It sheds new light on Ernst Mach’s shock wave experiments, which resulted in a physical theory whereby the speeds of sound can be defined only in relation to one another—in other words, a relational theory of motion, which Albert Einstein later described as pioneering for the general theory of relativity. For the physicist Mach, however, the prime objective of his shock wave research was to achieve a psychophysiological theory of relativity. He pointed out that his ballistic experiments were enabled only by sensory observation and comparative listening. The chapter illuminates Mach’s plea for the use of “trained ears,” as opposed to the stance of Sigmund Exner, a physiologist teaching in Vienna at the same time as Mach. For Exner, sense perception was a deficient process, impossible to verify. He argued that an objective comparison and improvement of the sonic environment is possible only by using precision instruments that assist sensory perception or even replace it, whereas Mach regarded technological aids not as something fundamentally different from sense perception, but as its logical consequence.
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