A unit of pitch There are 100 cents in a half-step (See table and drawing on p 54 in the Percussion Manual )
A denomination valued at one-hundredth of a dollar, struck continuously by the U S Mint since 1793 except for 1815 (Actually, some cents dated 1816 were struck in December of 1815 )
In musical terms a cent is 1/100 of a semitone Cents are a common and convenient way of describing very small increments of pitch in musical terms Keep in mind that the relationship between frequency and pitch is not linear so describing small pitch differences or changes in terms of frequency can be very confusing
the smallest equal tempered interval in general use One cent is 1% of an equal tempered semitone, so there are 100 cents per semitone and 1200 cents per octave The cent is commonly used to express tuning differences For example, an equal tempered major third is 400 cents wide, while a just major third, a 5/4 ratio, is only 386 cents wide, a 14-cent difference
A United States coin, the hundredth part of a dollar, formerly made of copper, now of copper, tin, and zinc
A convenient way to measure intervals by the log of the frequency ratio 100 cents make a semitone, 1200 cents make an octave The interval in cents between two frequencies f1 and f2 is 1731 234 * ln (f2 / f1) where ln is the log to base e
Used to describe pitch tuning A notation where one hundred cents equals a half step