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Before now, we've always taken for granted exactly what pitch was associated with each note. We tuned our open strings with our tuner and assumed our frets were spaced correctly to give us the desired pitches. However, this is a much deeper subject. There are many different '''tuning systems''' that define which fundamental pitches belong to each note, changing how chords and melodies sound.
'''Equal Temperamenttemperament''' is a tuning system that divides each octave into a certain number of equally-spaced pitches on a logarithmic scale. In other words, each semitone movement changes pitch by the same relative amount for all notes. The most common equal temperament is 12-tone equal temperament (12-TET), and this is the most common modern tuning system, found on virtually every mass-produced guitar. This goes beyond the pitches that the strings are tuned to, involving the scale length of each string and the location of where each fret contacts the string. It is not something that can be adjusted, at least not without replacing the fretboard.
The main advantage of equal temperament is that it is key-neutral. The pitch ratio between any two notes for a type of interval are consistent for all possible keys based on the 12-tone scale. These intervals will deviate slightly from their "ideal" (most harmonic) '''pure tuning''' intervals found in a '''Just Intonationjust intonation''' tuning system. When we deviate from the just or pure intervals, we call this a '''tempered''tempered'' interval'''. Various other '''temperaments ''' exist, using different methodologies to determine how the intervals should be tempered and what their relative pitches are, as seen below.
<small>''This article is just a taste of the depth that all the math actually produces. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament the Wikipedia page] for more info.''</small>