Question

n music, a quaver is one-eighth of a semibreve (whole note). What fraction of a semibreve is a hemidemisemiquaver? (Hint: hemi-, demi-, and semi- are prefixes each of which represents a multiplication by one-half).

Answer 1

`(1)/(64)`

Explanation:

Hemi-, demi- and semi- are prefixes which mean half.

When applied to musical notation, each time a prefix is added it means the note's value is halved.

Therefore, if a quaver is one-eighth of a semibreve, then a semiquaver is half of a quaver, which means it's one-sixteenth of a semibreve.

`\large \begin{aligned}\sf quaver & = \sf(1)/(8)\:of\:a\:semibreve\\\\\implies \sf hemisemidemiquaver & = \sf (1)/(2) * (1)/(2) * (1)/(2) * quaver\\\\& = \sf (1)/(2) * (1)/(2) * (1)/(2) * (1)/(8)\\\\& = \sf (1)/(64)\:of\:a\:semibreve\end{aligned}`

Therefore, a hemisemidemiquaver is one-sixty-fourth of a semibreve.