George Gibson

University of Connecticut

Monday, April 11, 2011

4:30 p.m.

Cardwell 102

Just What is the Connection Between Physics and Music?

"What we are nowadays hearing of the language of spectra is a true "music of the spheres" within the atom, chords of integral relationships, an order and Harmony that becomes ever more perfect in spite of the manifold variety." - Sommerfeld (1919).

From the Neanderthals to Pythagoras, through the Enlightenment, to the development of Quantum Mechanics, physicists have been motivated, inspired, and obsessed by music.  Even today, physicists try to describe the natural world in musical terms.  This talk will discuss this complex interplay between physics and music and explore just how deep this connection really is.