I wrote a review of Big Big Train’s soon-to-be-released album, Grand Tour, and it has been posted at the Spirit of Cecilia site. It’s a terrific set of songs by one of the most talented rock groups working today.
What Hath the Train Wrought, Part I
My school had graduation yesterday, so I can look forward to having some extended periods of time to do some reading. Here are three books I’ve enjoyed recently and you might find interesting (clicking on the titles will take you to their Amazon pages):
Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality, by Edward Frenkel. This is a terrific book about Frenkel’s struggles to overcome institutional anti-Semitism in his native Russia and become a world-class mathematician. He is currently a professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley. He intersperses autobiographical details with explanations of how his mathematical research helped physicists develop their theories of quantum mechanics, as well as unite seeming unconnected branches of math. Along the way, he shares his love of the Platonic world of mathematics: “Nothing can stop us from delving deeper into this Platonic reality and integrating it into our lives. What’s truly remarkable is mathematics’ inherent democracy: while some parts of the physical and mental worlds may be perceived or interpreted differently by different people or may not even by accessible to some of us, mathematical concepts and equations are perceived in the same way and belong to all of us equally. No one can have a monopoly on mathematical knowledge; no one can claim a mathematical formula or idea as his or her invention; no one can patent a formula!” (pp. 235-236) Frenkel delves into some very deep and advanced mathematics, but he manages to explain it terms most everyone can understand.
Program Or Be Programmed: Ten Commands For A Digital Age, by Douglas Rushkoff. My daughter gave me this book after she read it for a coding class in college. It is in the vein of Neil Postman, asking users of social media to be aware of digital technologies’ inherent biases. It’s relatively short, but very powerful. Rushkoff’s main point is that unless users understand basic coding principles, they will be at the mercy of an élite who create the social media platforms that can manipulate them. The ten commands are:
Favorite quote: “In a digital culture that values data points over context, everyone comes to believe they have the real answer and that the other side is crazy or evil.” (p. 65)
This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, by Daniel Levitin.
This technically isn’t a book about math, but if you’ve ever wondered why humans are the only animals to create and appreciate music, then you will enjoy this. Levitin knows what he’s talking about: he’s been a record producer of very successful rock artists, and he is now a neuroscientist at McGill University, where he runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise.
Levitin spends the first few chapters explaining what music is, and what terms like pitch, timbre, rhythm, and tempo mean. He also discusses the mathematical relationships in tones and octaves.
Levitin spends the rest of the book explaining the latest research in how the brain processes music, and what is involved in creating, performing, and enjoying it. No other activity involves as many parts of the brain as performing music does. He laments the separation between performer and audience that has happened in western cultures. In earlier times, everyone played some sort of instrument or sang. The easy availability of recorded music has caused a decline in music performance, however, to the detriment of us all.
So, three books with three very different foci, but I believe teachers of mathematics will find all of them interesting and enjoyable. Have a great summer!
I just posted this over at Progarchy, but I wanted to include it here at Fractopia. I probably should have waited until next March 14, but what the heck!
I recently discovered this song by Alan Stewart that the good people at Numberphile posted. It’s a prog tune based on the digits of pi and tau. Now, before you turn up your nose at the thought of combining random digits with music, give it a listen. It’s quite good and packed with mathematical puns. For example, the camera makes a complete circle as the tune unfolds.
While my students work in the classroom, I often play music. The overwhelmingly favorite genre is, surprisingly, classical. (That gives me faith in the future!) If you have an mp3 player, you can get dozens of hours of very nice performances of classical music from Amazon for almost nothing.
How do the complete symphonies of Mozart for $0.99 sound? Get them here:
Mozart: Complete Symphonies (The VoxBox Edition)
Now that November has arrived, here are 280 pieces of classical Christmas music for $0.99:
Big Christmas Box
Here are two volumes of popular symphonies from Dvorak, Beethoven, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Mahler, Ives, and many more; each collection is $0.99:
Big Great Symphonies Box, Vol I
Big Great Symphonies Box, Vol II
And finally, nothing enhances mathematical thinking like some good old J. S. Bach. You can get 293 pieces for $2.99:
Bigger Bach Set
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