Skip to main content
Search IntMath
Close

Friday math movie: The math of sound, frequency and pitch

By Murray Bourne, 16 Sep 2011

The full title of today's movie is "What is up with Noises? (The Science and Mathematics of Sound, Frequency, and Pitch)".

The ever-enthusiastic Vi Hart gives us a whirlwind tour of sound, waves, music, fluid, swings, violas, membranes and lots of other stuff.

Math and music

I've been interested in the interplay of math and music most of my life. I loved it when I found out Pythagoras was into analyzing "nice" sounds mathematically (this video includes this topic).

For some background which may help to understand this video, see

What are the frequencies of music notes?

Line Spectrum

FFT

On with the show.

You really need to watch the video a few times - it is somewhat over the top...

Be the first to comment below.

Leave a comment




Comment Preview

HTML: You can use simple tags like <b>, <a href="...">, etc.

To enter math, you can can either:

  1. Use simple calculator-like input in the following format (surround your math in backticks, or qq on tablet or phone):
    `a^2 = sqrt(b^2 + c^2)`
    (See more on ASCIIMath syntax); or
  2. Use simple LaTeX in the following format. Surround your math with \( and \).
    \( \int g dx = \sqrt{\frac{a}{b}} \)
    (This is standard simple LaTeX.)

NOTE: You can mix both types of math entry in your comment.

top

Tips, tricks, lessons, and tutoring to help reduce test anxiety and move to the top of the class.