How many tunes?

http://www.thewessens.net/blog/2015/05/21/how-many-tunes/

Application, Blog post, Interactive, Investigation, Worksheet - Electronic

Just how many musical tunes are possible and will we ever run out?  This discussion and associated "Computer Composer" activity give students the experience of:

  • Describing components of music mathematically
  • Utilising this description to create new music
  • Understanding the application of a mathematical model to a non-obviously mathematical problem
  • Applying mathematics to an area of interest
  • Applying mathematics to a question of contemporary concern
  • Calculating arrangements
  • Calculating choices with replacement
  • Linking probability with counting possibilities
  • Recognition of the magnitude of combinatorial growth

An extension includes:

  • algebraic expansion,
  • choice and probability, 
  • index laws
  • generating functions


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15 February 2016 Edit: 4 February 2016

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