On rational and irrational numbers, strings and harmony

Join us for a Public Lecture by Professor Uri Onn from the Mathematical Sciences Institute (MSI), at the Australian National University as part of National Science Week.

This lecture aims at introducing the general audience to a beautiful relationship between maths, physics and music. We will explore the evolution of ideas that led to the equal temperament, the 12-note system which prevails in much music worldwide. The main characters in this story are the wave equation in a string and its pure solutions, which are given by waves with integral periods; the relations between them which are rational numbers; and finally, a twist in the plot where equal temperament is actually done with irrational numbers to achieve symmetry.

The lecture will be accompanied by live music.

This public lecture is accessible for students in year 11 and 12.