Beats occur when two sounds waves with similar frequencies are combined. The frequency of the beats is equal to the difference between the frequencies of the two sound waves. If a violin player hears 2 beats per second while tuning a string, the untuned string's frequency must be 2 Hz lower than the reference frequency of 440 Hz. For two animals calling from land and water, the beat frequency is calculated using their wavelengths to determine frequencies, then taking the difference, which is 5.5 Hz.