Maths and Music

Summary

Follow-up project work
Answers to questions in project work
Additional notes

Would you like to find out about the connection between maths and music? Or would you prefer to get involved in practical activities about maths, music and dancing? The material in this conference will introduce you to some of the connections between maths, music and dancing.

Topics include rational and irrational numbers and the relationship between them and musical scales; using Fibonacci and random numbers to compose music; and the connection between the symmetries of the square and various types of traditional dance. This can be taken further, and connected with basic group theory if desired.

This material has been put together for a special conference for students from a school in Singapore. Students from three UK schools in Chester, Coventry and Newcastle will be joining them for a second videoconference, which will form part of a mathematics education teachers' conference in Singapore.

The material used here is based partly on materials taken from an earlier conference Prof Chris Budd, of the University of Bath, did for the Motivate project. You can find out more about what Chris Budd has to say about Maths and Dancing, and many other mathematical topics, in Budd, C.J. and Sangwin, C.J. (2001) Mathematics Galore!. Oxford University Press

Enquiries for other special events of this sort should be sent to Jenny Gage at jag55@cam.ac.uk.

Experiments
Types of number
The maths of musical scales
Composing with numbers
Folk dancing and symmetry

Types of number
The maths of musical scales
Folk dancing and symmetry

Reading music
Introduction to group theory
Answers to group theory questions