A cent is one twelve-hundredth of an octave, or one hundredth of a semitone.

Evidence

The cent is defined as one hundredth of an equal tempered semitone, which is equivalent to one twelve-hundredth of an octave since there are 12 semitones to the octave. Thus one cent can be expressed as: … The frequency ratio of any interval (F1/F2) can therefore be calculated from that interval in cents (c) as follows: and the number of cents can be calculated from the frequency ratio by rear­ ranging to give: For calculation convenience, a logarithm to base 2 can be expressed as a logarithm to base 10. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2790

The cent is defined as one hundredth of an equal tempered semitone, which is equivalent to one twelve-hundredth of an octave since there are 12 semitones to the octave. Thus one cent can be expressed as: The frequency ratio of any interval (F1/F2) can therefore be calculated from that interval in cents (c) as follows: and the number of cents can be calculated from the frequency ratio by rear­ ranging to give: For calculation convenience, a logarithm to base 2 can be expressed as a logarithm to base 10. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2790

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the cent standard unit of musical interval measurement, foundational for psychoacoustic frequency analysis.
• SHARE: A tidbit for the one musician or audio-engineer friend who cares that the cent is precisely 1/1200 of an octave.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2790