Reflection on assignment #3

 I enjoyed working on assignment #3 quite a bit. 

Initially, Tage and I had different idea. I was very interested in sacred geometry. For example, the idea of trinity in Nature and how many life forms have a 3 part structure. (butterflies, insects etc.)

However, his idea of the painting using the square root of 2 and irrationality led me to believe that I could still include some sort of geometrical idea and explain the origins of the pythagorean theorem. 

For me, my perspective on numbers changed a lot. I think I became more philosophical as a result of reading into what numbers actually represent. It was really interesting to see the connections between numbers and music in particular. In particular, the ratio of the length impacting the sound emancipating out of different instruments struck me in the sense that the octave, the fourth, and fifth can be combined in some way to generate many more sounds and combinations of numbers. Therefore, Pythagoras was able to advance the understanding of music I believe.

One question that I have that still remains that I didn’t research as much was how Pythagoras used numbers to describe planets. I came across something called cosmos which I believe describes the spatial system but was that really pythagoras that coined that term. Moreover, how does this relate to commensurability. For example, did he have a way to estimate the diameter or rotation of the planets. If so, perhaps he was able to calculate some sort of ratio or proportion between them that was further developed and used by scientists later on to establish in part whether that area is livable for human existence or not.


Comments

  1. Susan GerofskyJanuary 5, 2025 at 8:21 PM

    Thanks for this interesting reflection, Zain! You might be interested in looking into Johannes Kepler's work on 'the music of the spheres'-- that is, Kepler's ideas about the spacing of the planets in the solar system as related to Pythagorean musical harmonies. With the later invention of the telescope, Kepler's assumptions were proven wrong, but they are still fascinating as a way of thinking about mathematics, astronomy and music together!

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