Showing posts with label anvils. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anvils. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 04, 2015

Pythagoras at the Anvil: How Did an Ancient Mathematician Use Hammer Strikes on an Anvil to Decode Music?


Music was born in a forge. The Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras decoded, or invented, the musical scale. He came up with it after discerning the relative musical tones of different blacksmiths' hammers, based on each hammer's relative weight.