Music and mathematics are deeply expressive languages that reveal
their mysteries through both pattern and serendipity. This talk aims to
expand the connection by demonstrating some elegant mathematical ideas that
explain how music may be represented and even created by a computer.
The figure above shows the waveform created
when the G string on a guitar is picked. We'll use this as a starting point
to understanding the nature of sound and what it takes to recreate a sound
like this.
I intend for this talk to be accessible to undergraduates. In fact, I hope
to make the ideas, which include topics such as Fourier series and Bessel
functions, very concrete through the use of pictures and sound files.