• BertramDitore@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    A middle school teacher asked for an analogy about something, I don’t remember what specifically, but I raised my hand and excitedly said “Oh! Like how math can help you understand music and music can help you understand math?”

    The teacher looked at me like I was a total fool and said “music has absolutely nothing to do with math, how could you possibly think that?”

    Since I was a snarky little punk, and I knew I was right, I said “have you heard about the circle of fifths? Let me tell you about it” and I proceeded to explain the mathematical beauty of music to the entire class. I even had sheet music in my bag from my piano lessons, so I pulled it out and showed it to everyone to explain the bars, tempo, and time signature, all of which are based on mathematical principles.

    She was not happy to be proven wrong in front of a class of fifth graders.

    • Umbrias@beehaw.org
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      23 hours ago

      music has things that can be described mathematically in ways that are largely historical, but not axiomatic in a math sense. but if learning music helps you learn math and/or visa versa, power to you.

    • JOMusic@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Lol. Pythagoras - considered one of the gods to maths teachers - explicitly talked about the mathematical beauty of music. Where was this person trained?

      • BertramDitore@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Goood question. I hadn’t thought about her in ages, but it’s funny how random memories of her class are coming back now. She was a shitty teacher, she clearly didn’t want to be there.