"I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but, most importantly, music, for in the patterns of music and all the arts are the keys of learning."
Who said that? None other than Plato himself.
This begs the question: How does music connect to the STEM world and what qualities grant it significance in a world filled with "noble pursuits" like medicine, law, business, and engineering?
For those not familiar with sheet music, music is divided into measures, which each contain beats. To find the number of beats in each measure, we look to the time signature, whose numerator determines just that. The time signature's denominator determines which note is considered a single beat.
Songs in 4/4 time have four beats per measure, where a quarter note is one beat. Many popular songs are in 4/4 time, such as You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift or We Will Rock You by Queen.
Rhythm and music are defined by time, with beats, which last a fraction of time, and rests, which last a whole measure. To follow time signatures in music, one must count fractions of beats. As STEMtropolis writes, "Many musicians will tell you they simply 'feel the beat,' though at some level there is math at work."
Not only is there math involved in music, but there is science involved as well.
When air molecules collide or move apart, sound is created.
Sound waves allow us to enjoy music, vibrating our eardrums and bringing the music to our ears. Depending on how far apart and how high the sound waves are, music sounds different to us. The distance between soundwaves is called frequency, and the height of a soundwave is called amplitude.
The frequency of a sound wave determines its pitch. Each note has a pitch, distinguishing how low or high it sounds.
Sounds with a lower pitch have lower frequency sound waves, and those with a higher pitch have higher frequency sound waves. The higher the amplitude of a sound wave, the louder that sound is.
Math and science are the basis for tuning an instrument. The A above middle C, often used for tuning a piano, has been labeled as A440. The frequency of that note is 440 Hertz (Hz), representing the number of sound wave cycles that the note makes per second. One octave below is A220, which has a lower pitch than A440.
Pitch even differs from instrument to instrument. For example, an acoustic guitar's open E string has a frequency of 82 Hz, but that same note on a bass guitar has a frequency of 41 Hz, sounding much lower.
What surrounds a sound wave affects how we perceive it, a scientific concept called resonance. Music sounds different in a room filled with furniture and carpet than in an empty room. Acoustics are very often considered in the design of concert halls, such as the famous Musikverein concert hall in Vienna, whose shape and details diffuse sound in a marvelous way.
Math is even considered in the making of instruments, such as flutes, whose meticulously placed holes produce the desired tones. In the making of guitars, similar concepts are considered in the placing of frets. If a guitarist's finger is not placed in the correct place, it will not produce the desired pitch, emphasizing how meticulous violinists and cellists need to be in playing their fretless instruments.
There are many other factors to consider that connect STEM to music, such as programming music software, audio engineering, and music playback. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I wanted to share this with you to get you all thinking. STEM is the invisible basis for many things. This time, it is music, but next time, who knows what we will discover together! Thank you for reading about another reason how STEM is used in our lives, and stay tuned for more posts!
* A Dead Poets Society reference and one of my favorite quotes, delivered perfectly by Robin Williams in the film:
“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”
― N.H. Kleinbaum
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