Mathmusicians

Pythagoras, depicted on a 3rd-century coinImage via WikipediaOk so a couple of videos have been floating through my PLN this week.  I followed them to their youtube home and found one mathmusician.  Oddly enough I remember one musician spending hours , or what seemed like hours, telling me how chords in music aren’t random but based on mathematical principals.

So I’ve always known there was some sort of connection between math and music, I’m just not really sure of the connection.  You won’t either after this blog post, but I hope someone figures it out and explains it to me.

Anyway, the videos she creates are pretty cool and do a great job of connecting real world mathematics to doodling.  After watching the videos I thought it would be great time filler for those half days when you can’t really teach anything and the students just don’t want to learn anyway.

Show them the video and turn them loose to be creative. Just be sure to ask them to explain what they can of the math before you hang them on the wall.

If you don’t have the time or ability to get a youtube video into the classroom here is a link to a cool Pythagoras Tree applet.  Students can draw those pretty easily.
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