Math for Poets (UMAP)

This Module presents musical and mathematical topics in a general education mathematics course entitled "Sounding Number: Music and Mathematics from Ancient to Modern Times." Music has many connections to mathematics. The Greeks discovered that chords with a pleasing sound are related to simple ratios of integers. It is less well known that the rhythms of music and poetry have been studied mathematically. In ancient India, scholars first discovered Pascal's triangle and the Fibonacci numbers in the rhythms of poetry. This Module explores some mathematics related to rhythm in poetry and music, with extensions to mathematical topics such as binary codes and de Bruijn sequences. Exercises, worksheets, quizzes, and sample exam questions are included.