Pitch can only be measured relative, not absolutely

Evidence

However, the early observations did not allow the measurement of pitch for two reasons. First, as with loudness, we cannot measure the pitch of a pure tone — we can only measure the pitch of that tone relative to another tone. Second, in order to measure the relationship between the pitch of one tone and that of another tone, we need a reference stimulus and a measurement scale. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1237

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• CANDY: A clean, tweetable point: you can’t measure the pitch of a single tone, only its pitch relative to another — a nice elevator-conversation curiosity.

Related

• Pitch cannot be measured absolutely, only relative to another tone (similarity 0.97)
• Pitch strength is a distinct perceptual dimension absent from loudness (similarity 0.88)
• Pitch measurement inherently requires subjective listener judgments (similarity 0.87)
• Pitch lacks a magnitude dimension, complicating its subjective measurement (similarity 0.87)
• Pitch of a tone is defined by the matching 40 dB reference frequency (similarity 0.86)
• Absolute pitch precision is roughly ten times that of trained relative-pitch listeners (similarity 0.85)
• Pitch can be modeled as a positional sensation scaled by discrimination steps (similarity 0.85)
• Pitch strength varies independently of perceived pitch height (similarity 0.85)
• Pitch as a sensory dimension has both height and perceptual strength, which vary independently. (similarity 0.85)
• The frequency-pitch mapping was established before models of pitch existed (similarity 0.84)
• Pitch depends only on spectrum and periodicity, not volume or direction. (similarity 0.84)
• Magnitude estimation of loudness yields only relative, not absolute, values. (similarity 0.84)
• Pitch is formally defined as where sounds fall on a musical scale (similarity 0.84)
• Absolute pitch is roughly ten times more precise than trained relative pitch. (similarity 0.83)
• Pitch, though subjective, is measurable in Hz by matching against a sine wave (similarity 0.83)