What do you get when you mix physicists with mathematicians? Fire and music.
As part of a new take on the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival, University of Idaho physics professors Christine Berven and Marty Ytreberg along with Mark Nielsen, associate dean and professor of mathematics, will share musical lessons in relation to science and math.
Musicians in past lives — Berven plays saxophone and clarinet and Ytreberg plays guitar and trumpet — the physics professors will showcase “Making Waves With Music.”
Ytreberg said the demonstration will include a Ruben’s tube, essentially a flame tube that shows how sound waves travel in air. “A sound wave is a region of high and low pressure,” Ytreberg said.
The two professors will play a constant tone at a particular pitch, creating a single frequency of sound waves. They will ignite the tube with propane and sound waves will appear in the flames.
“There’s places where there’s really little flame and places where it’s high,” Ytreberg said. “The spaces between the highest points is the measure of the wavelength.”
Ytreberg said the sound waves will be more dynamic when the professors play an actual piece of music as opposed to a constant tone.
Ytreberg said the demonstrations will conclude with a discussion on music’s need for air.
Berven said the structure, relationships and exceptions of science are related to music.
“Music runs though a lot of scientists’ lives,” Berven said.
For example, Berven said famous jazz musician Dave Brubeck used time signatures and harmonics that, like physical principles, are basic ingredients to a larger realm of music and science.
“Our goal (for the demonstration is to show how) to be creative in whatever field you’re in,” Berven said. “It’s good to know more about the tools you use.”
As for other common tools in music, the 12-tone scale is a popular division of steps that mathematician and composer Nielsen will help make sense of in “Math and the Musical Scale.”
“How did we arrive at this scale when really you’ve got an octave?” Nielsen said. “How come we chose these combinations? What combinations of sound sound good to us?”
Nielsen said the 12-tone scale, or chromatic scale, sounds good because the pitches occur naturally.
He said other scales, like those apparent in Japanese culture, may not sound natural to an American ear.
“Making Waves With Music” and “Math and the Musical Scale” will be from 1:45 to 3 p.m. Friday in Renfrew Hall, room 125. On Saturday, “Making Waves With Music” will be at 10:30 to 11 a.m. while “Math and the Musical Scale” will be at 1:30 to 2 p.m.
Nielsen said he hopes the new Jazz Fest opportunities will attract incoming students.
“The whole goal is to show visiting high school students part of the university, more than just music,” Nielsen said.
Ytreberg said he wants the demonstrations to encourage appreciation of the science behind musical instruments.
“Not just making a musical instrument, but one that sounds good,” Ytreberg said.
Berven said the math and science of music allows musicians to get out of their instrument and understand the mechanisms and art behind it.
“(This demonstration) adds another dimension to appreciate what it takes (to be a musician),” Berven said. “It’s interesting to know more about the world and increase science literacy. You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in physics to appreciate it.”