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math

In Our Time

Fibonacci Sequence

Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy looks at rhythmic complexities in Steve Reich, Messiaen, Ewe music from Ghana and a piece lasting 1000 years. 

Maths and Music: 1/4. Counter Culture

Marcus du Sautoy examines Pythagoras' theories about the harmonious world, the thorny issue of temperament and the 12 tone scale. 

Maths and Music: 2/4 Music Of The Spheres

Marcus du Sautoy reveals the symmetry in Bach's Goldberg Variations, the maths behind bell-ringing and Mozart's obsession with numbers. 

Maths and Music: 3/4 Theme And Variations

To infinity and beyond with Georg Cantor. Professor Marcus du Sautoy describes the troubled life of this radical mathematician who shocked his colleagues by proving there's more than one infinity. 

Cantor.mp3

An embarassing error and the mathematics of chaos. Professor Marcus du Sautoy describes how a mistake in Poincare's working led him to an astonishing conclusion: small changes in the input to your equations can result wildly deviating outcomes. The butterfly effect was born.

Poincare.mp3

A mathematical romance. Professor Marcus du Sautoy describes how a passion for prime numbers united a Cambridge professor and an unknown Indian clerk. (Warning: contains the equation 1+2+3+4+...=-1/12)

HardyRamanujan.mp3

The mathematician that never was. Professor Marcus du Sautoy describes the life and mathematics of an elusive hero. The collected works of Bourbaki represents one of the most ambitious enterprises in mathematical history: an attempt to unify shapes and numbers into single discipline.

Bourbaki.mp3

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn explore Fermat's Last Theorem. In 1637 the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat scribbled a note in the margin of one of his books. He claimed to have proved a remarkable property of numbers, but gave no clue as to how he'd gone about it. Fermat's theorem became one of the most iconic problems in mathematics and for centuries mathematicians struggled in vain to work out what his proof had been. It was not until 1995 that the puzzle was finally solved by the British mathematician Andrew Wiles.

In Our Time: Fermat's Last Theorem

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn discuss random and pseudorandom numbers. Randomness will be familiar to anybody who’s bought a lottery ticket or shuffled a pack of cards. But there’s also a phenomenon known as pseudo-randomness –numbers which look random but aren’t. So why are these numbers useful and how can they be generated?

In Our Time: random and pseudorandom

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn grapple with the concept of imaginary numbers. Perplexing digits that underpin the majority of technology we take for granted today, from radios to computers to MRI scans; not to mention quantum mechanics. This episode inspired a cartoon in the New Yorker that week entitled "not-particularly-easy-listening radio". Good luck.

In Our Time: imaginary numbers

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn explore the unintended consequences of mathematical discoveries. Discover how time and again a piece of mathematics created for its own sake and with no thought of impact can nonetheless have extraordinary consequences for science and society.

In Our Time: Unintended Consequences

In this episode of In Our time Marcus and Melvyn discuss the mathematician Kurt Godel and his work. His Incompleteness Theorem revealed that there are true statements in any axiomatic system for numbers that cannot be proved within that system. 

In Our Time: Godel's Incompleteness Theorem

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn discuss the famous Fibonacci Numbers. 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21... they are Nature's favourite numbers. Count the number of petals on a flower and invariably it's a number in the Fibonacci sequence...and if it isn't...that's cos a petal fell off your flower...which is how mathematicians get round exceptions.

In Our Time: The Fibonacci Sequence

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn discuss Symmetry. From the reflectional symmetry of the human face to the symmetries underpinning the fundamental particles that make up the physical universe, the concept is one of the most important in science. But it was French revolutionary teenager called Galois who created the mathematical language to pin down this slippery concept before he was shot in a duel at the age of 20.

In Our Time: Symmetry

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn discuss the Poincaré Conjecture. Celebrating the recent solution of this fundamental conjecture by Grigori Perelman, this episode pulls no punches as we explore the mathematical possibilities for the shape of the universe.

In Our Time: The Poincaré Conjecture

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn discuss Mathematics and Music. Discover why the notes we find harmonic are simply our brains responding to mathematics and how mathematics has been used by many composers from Bach to Berg to frame their compositions. As Bach's student Mizler used to say "Bach's music is the processing of sounding mathematics." 

In Our Time: Mathematics and Music

In this episode of In Our Time Marcus and Melvyn explore the mystery of prime numbers. 2,3,5,7,11,13,17... Primes are the hydrogen and oxygen of mathematics and yet trying to understand a pattern in these enigmatic numbers has alluded mathematicians for millennia. 

In Our Time: Prime Numbers

Composed and performed by Bence Peter.
The original recording of this song is one of the most popular Berklee-related videos on YouTube with over 40,000 views. This composition has been awarded and recognized multiple times internationally.
For business inquires and permissions for the use of the song contact: info@bencepeter.com

Piano Piece Based on Fibonacci Sequence - Rehearsal Version

An audiobook of The Grimms Brother story, The Frog Prince. 

® Duke University

In Our Time: The Fibonacci Sequence

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