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Why you cannot add exponents

valve 1 adds 0.12246+valve 3 adds 0.18921

so you get  ×1.31167

but you need  ×1.33484  (that's 2^(5/12))

the note comes out 30.3 cents sharp

watch for this

Lengths add, pitches multiply. Valves 1 + 3 land 30.3 cents sharp.

Adding two pipes adds their lengths. Dropping five semitones multiplies the length by 2^(5/12). Addition and multiplication are not the same move, so the note lands short — and every trumpeter in the world corrects it by hand, on a slide, several times a minute.

The full lesson behind this: The trumpet →