Harmonic analysis, music, and hearing shapes |
Charles Moore |
Department of Mathematics |
Kansas State University |
Why do pianos sound much different than drums? What would pianos sound like if they had doughnut shaped or spherical strings? We will discuss some basic notions of the wave equation and some elementary ideas in Fourier and harmonic analysis which will give us some insight into these questions. We will also include a little discussion regarding the famous question "Can you hear the shape of a drum?" |