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Music is filled with mathematical elements, the works of Bach are often said to possess a math-like logic, and Igor Stravinsky said "musical form is close to mathematics," while Arnold Schoenberg, Iannis Xenakis, and Karlheinz Stockhausen went further, writing music explicitly based on mathematical principles. Yet Eli Maor argues that music has influenced math at least as much as math has influenced music. Starting with Pythagoras, proceeding through the work of Schoenberg, and ending with contemporary string theory, Music by the Numbers tells a fascinating story of composers, scientists, inventors, and eccentrics who played a role in the age-old relationship between music, mathematics, and the sciences, especially physics and astronomy.

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"A fascinating investigation of the relationship between math and music--what they have in common, how they differ, and how each has informed the other, from Pythagoras to Schoenberg, from violin strings to superstrings. A delightful examination of how math and culture interact."--Ian Stewart, author of Significant Figures

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Eli Maor is a former professor of the history of mathematics at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of seven previous books, including the internationally acclaimed To Infinity and Beyond, e: The Story of a Number, Trigonometric Delights, and The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-Year History (all Princeton).

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