Most of us don’t think of sound when we think of mathematics, but math makes up the very basis of sound, which is constructed on an array of numerical properties. In other words, math mainly has to do with the acoustics rather than the composition of the sound itself.
Surely throughout your life you have heard dissonant and consonant music, so then why exactly is it that one sounds terrible and the other sounds so pleasant?
The answer has to do with wave patterns. When you pluck a string of an instrument, it vibrates back and forth creating sound – much like your vocal chords do when you sing or speak. The number of times per second that sound hits your ears is called frequency. Each note gives off its own frequency and in any musical piece, these frequencies have to work together.
When sound is consonant, frequencies of different notes match up so that the sound waves overlap with one another at regular intervals. When they do not overlap on regular intervals, dissonant sounds are heard. All sound frequencies and wave patterns are rooted in mathematics.
So then, what is the sound of math?
It is every sound you have ever heard.