TV Episode Exploited Link between Math and Music

December 22, 2008

A recent episode of the TV show Fringe hinged on apparent links between music and mathematics, as embodied in two characters mired in a dire situation. One, a child prodigy, was composing a song; the other, a mathematical genius, was stuck on a tough equation.

"People speak of math in the same ways as they speak of classical music," observed real-world mathematician Dave Rusin of Northern Illinois University, who has studied piano. "Form, structure, symmetry. Those words are used both for a Schubert symphony and a mathematics paper."

Moreover, studies have shown that, in MRI scans, roughly the same part of the brain lights up when solving a math problem as does when analyzing a Bach fugue.

In the Fringe episode, titled "The Equation," a mad scientist notices that an equation repeats a certain sign. Discovering that the repeated signs represent a rhythm, he converts the pattern into musical notation on his piano. Chords, he says, "have numerical values" and "are all just fractions and variables."

Rusin agrees that mathematics can provide insights into the structure of music—what makes music "music" and not just noise. "There's an organized structure to it and there are specific notes," he said. "Those notes have frequency, and a series of notes create a chord, and only some chords sound better than others."

It might be possible, Rusin told Popular Mechanics, "to take a message and break it down into binary strings—a series of 1s and 0s—and then take that data and reprocess it as a sound format."

But, he continued, "it could only be a random succession of keystrokes. It's not possible to take useful information that was not of a musical nature and somehow transmit it in a really musical way."

So, the links between math and music can be stretched too far, Rusin said. "Some people have taken what has generally been recognized as an informal connection between two fields, and overblown it," he noted.

Still, the apparent connection can make for some interesting plotting.

Source: Popular Mechanics, Nov. 19, 2008.