Musical Numbers: Understanding How Math and Music Merge
In building a thongophone for mathematical analysis of its pipes for pitch, Montclair students find the connection between music and math
Posted in: Faculty and Student Research, Students and Alumni
For anyone who believes math and music are an odd couple, Montclair State University Mathematics Professor Bogdan Nita may have you changing your tune. Nita conducts Mathematics and Music to teach students to see beyond formulas and to make connections by designing and building musical instruments to understand how musical elements can be analyzed numerically.
This semester, the class collaborated on studying a percussion instrument known as the thongophone. Built with recycled PVC pipes, the instrument produces a sound that varies according to the length of the pipes, one pipe per pitch arranged like the keyboard of a piano. It gets its name for the way it is played: The top of the pipes are struck with something flexible, like rubber thongs or flip-flops, the handiest things to use where the instrument originated in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
You talk about algebra and suddenly you talk about scales and then how can you invent your own scale? We do complicated algebra and the students can’t tell because they’re captivated by the music.
In building their own thongophone, the Math majors covered a wide variety of mathematical concepts – algebra, geometry, differential equations, a bit of topology and vector calculus – and all of it related to music.