Two Canadian mathematicians from the University of Moncton in New Brunswick, have created an entirely new kind of string instrument that exploits a kind of mathematics owing more to Pythagoras’s theorem for triangles than to anything he ever thought about music.
Math is integral to music and its instruments. read more.
Heather says
July 9, 2006 at 9:36 PMVery fascinating article! A new guitar-like instrument based on mathematics. My two strongest subjects are math and music and as this article suggests, there is a strong connection between the two. For example, I’ve found it fascinating that in 4/4 time the whole note is worth 4 beats which makes the half note worth 2 beats (half of the whole). Then, of course the quarter note gets 1 beat (1/4 of the whole) and the eighth note gets 1/2 beat (1/8 of the whole). When you switch to a different time signature, you can just reapply the fractions to calculate each note’s worth. So in 6/8 time, you have the eighth note at one beat and since the quarter note is worth twice the eighth note (1/8 1/8=1/4) it will now be worth two beats. And in 3/2 time, the half note is worth one beat, which means the quarter note (1/4 1/4=1/2) is now 1/2 beat, and the eighth note is 1/4 beat.
Graham English says
July 11, 2006 at 8:49 PMFun stuff. If you liked that, check out these articles when you get a chance: Phi