tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post6464976514394649701..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Music and MathematicsBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-72642373868747555692014-09-03T08:03:01.225-05:002014-09-03T08:03:01.225-05:00Despite what they say about music and math being r...Despite what they say about music and math being related, like most musicians, my math skills are rudimentary at best! So thanks for dropping by and sharing some insights, Craig.<br /><br />But I do know that the same thing obtains with vibrating strings: every time you pluck a string on the guitar, you get a whole bunch of different vibration modes. You can alter their relative intensity by how and where you pluck and this is how you control the timbre of the sound.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-21669011027584266702014-09-02T11:44:53.828-05:002014-09-02T11:44:53.828-05:00The vibrating drumhead is a classic problem in the...The vibrating drumhead is a classic problem in the theory of partial differential equations: I studied it, if I remember rightly, in a third-year mathematics course. The radial profile of the vibration is described by Bessel functions.<br /><br />Typically when you excite the membrane (that is, when you hit it) you don't get just one vibration mode. You get a whole bunch of them superimposed on one another, each with a different amplitude. The one in your animation is one of the more complicated, and is likely to have a low amplitude.<br /><br />Music and math is a huge subject, and a very interesting one too.Craighttp://cburrell.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com