It is important to remember that differential equations have been studied by a great many people over the last 300 years, and during most of that time there were no TVs, no cell phones, and no Internet. Given 300 years with nothing else to do, you might get quite adept at changing variables.

- from Differential Equations by Paul Blanchard, Robert Devaney, and Glen Hall

Spring Break Equation ‘08

Sweet, Sweet Math in Music

So, I had this idea about a month ago of making up a song solely based on Morse code of some text. I mean, the dots and dashes could be quarter notes and whole notes, eighth notes and quarter notes, whatever. It would work.

And apparently it does. In a recent article from Wired magazine, Wired highlights artist Mahanthappa on his marvelous new album, Codebook. In it, Mahanthappa uses math to formulate the notes and rhythms of his songs. One of them, Play It Again Sam, has a section where all the musicians play their names in Morse Code. Aw yeah.

Jazz is fun. Math jazz is just awesome. Check out the article for all the sweet, sweet details.

Namaste.

The name of π came from Euler. It’s an abbreviation for perimeter in Greek.

- From Good Math, Bad Math

Makes sense. I love when I learn little things like this that just “make sense.”