How to Science [Part 2: Our Universe = Math?]

Pythagoras discovered that strings sound good together when the ratio of their lengths reduces to simple fractions (like 1/1, 3/2, 2/3, 4/3), while strings whose length ratios don’t reduce to simple fractions sound dissonant.

Pythagoras discovered a second remarkable pattern: strings sound good together when the square root of the ratio of their tensions is simple, requiring mathematical transformation to reveal the underlying structure.

The Pythagoreans, compelled by mathematical patterns in music and geometry, concluded that our world is literally built from mathematics—a view some modern physicists still hold today.

Rather than accepting “the universe is built from math” as the endpoint, deeper inquiry asks: how far does the math-reality connection extend, and can mathematics reveal underlying mechanisms?

Richard Feynman articulated the most important idea in science: “If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t make a difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is—if it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong.”

The Italian scientist Giambattista Benedetti made an educated guess that musical sounds travel through air as rapid pulses, with pitch determined by how frequently these pulses arrive at the ear.

Galileo Galilei, guided by his father Vincenzo’s work, made well-informed guesses about how string frequency depends on length and tension—predictions that would ultimately prove correct.

The French priest and scientist Marin Mersenne, within 30 years of Galileo’s work, measured the frequency of vibrating strings and experimentally confirmed Galileo’s guesses—proving that what Galileo declared impossible was actually achievable.

The video poses an interactive challenge: given only early 1600s technology, how would you measure the vibration rate (frequency) of strings that oscillate too rapidly for visual observation?