Force Ten (song) worked with Rush on their song "Tom Sawyer", had sent Neil Peart some lyrics for the song, and Peart would add more verses to it. Lyrically, the song describes the "storms of life," making a reference to a very high level of the Beaufort scale ("force ten" is defined as a 'storm', being near the scale's maximum of 12) as an analogy, according to the book "Rush and Philosophy: Heart and Mind United". Musically, "Force Ten" is composed in A minor, with changes into A major scale occurring in the song. The song is set in common time at a
Beaufort scale Beaufort scale The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort wind force scale. The scale was devised in 1805 by the Irish hydrographer Francis Beaufort (later Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort), a Royal Navy officer, while serving on HMS "Woolwich". The scale that carries Beaufort's name had a long and complex evolution from the previous work of others (including Daniel Defoe the century before) to when Beaufort was Hydrographer of the Navy in the 1830s when it was adopted officially and first used