Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A "Sound" Approach To Fourier Transforms: Using Music To Teach Trigonometry, Bruce Kessler

Bruce Kessler

If a large number of educated people were asked, ``What was your most exciting class?'', odds are that very few of them would answer ``Trigonometry.'' The subject is generally presented in a less-than-exciting fashion, with the repeated caveat that ``you'll need this when you take calculus,'' or ``this has lots of applications'' without ever really seeing many of them. This manuscript addresses how the author is trying to change this tradition by exposing casual students from kindergarten to college to Joseph Fourier's secret, that nearly any function can be built out of sine and cosine curves. And music serves as …