“Diatonic, he heard the word in his head. Chromatic, pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic, octatonic, each iteration of the scale opening innumerable possibilities for harmony. He thought about the Pythagorean major third, the Didymus comma, the way the intervals sound out of tune rather than as though they were different notes. This, he thought, was where his brilliance at mathematics bled into his love of music; music was the realm in which his mathematical brain danced.” WayDifferentSoundBrainHeardPossibilityMajorsThirdsHarmonyMathematicsNotesScalesOpeningMathematicalRealmsTunesHis LoveBrillianceMusic LoveIntervals Author:Ru Freeman
“Now the denominator ... why don't they just call it the bottom number? The denominator ... that sounds like a Schwarzenegger movie doesn't it? [impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger] I am the Denominator. I'll give your leg a compound fraction!” GivingSoundNumbersMathematicsBottomLegsFractionsCompoundsSchwarzenegger Author:Tim Allen
“Art lives on the mental plane (the real painting is not the set of dry pigments on the canvas nor is a symphony the sequence of sound waves that convey it to our ear) but, as the post-modernists insist, is reinterpreted in new contexts by each appreciator. As for gossip, which includes the vast majority of our thoughts, its essence is its relation to a unique local part of time and space.” ArtRealSoundSpacePaintingUniqueEssenceEarsRelationMathematicsMajorityWaveLocalsPostsPlanesDryGossipCanvasOur ThoughtsTime And SpaceSequenceSymphonyPigmentArt LifeSound Waves Author:David Mumford
“This is a collaboration between a complex analyst, a dynamical system expert, and an arithmetical algebraic geometer. It sounds like a joke, a complex analyst, a dynamical system expert, and an arithmetical algebraic geometer walk into a bar.” ScienceSoundWalksJokesMathematicsComplexesBarsExpertsCollaborationAnalysts Author:Jordan Ellenberg
“Newton's theory is not 'not right', it just does not cover all distances. Contrary to popular belief, theories in science are not proven wrong, they are just replaced by more complete and convenient theories. To sound provocative, even the geocentric theory was never "proven" wrong, it is just not as convenient as the heliocentric theory, since it requires endless epicycles.” DoeScienceBeliefSoundTheoryMathematicsDistanceContraryEndlessReplacedProvenConvenientNewtonProvocativeContrary To Popular BeliefProven Wrong Author:Nathan Seiberg
“Like musicians who can read and write complicated scores in a world without sounds, for us mathematics is a source of delight, excitement, and even controversy which are hard to share with non mathematicians. In our small micro-cosmos we should ever seek the right balance between competition and solidarity, criticism and empathy, exclusion and inclusion.” WorldShouldWritingHardScienceSoundShareSourceBalanceMusicianEmpathyCriticismMathematicsCompetitionDelightComplicatedExcitementScoreCosmosInclusionMathematicianSolidarityControversyExclusion Author:Gil Kalai