After all, what do music, mathematics, and money have in common? This is a question we'll unravel as we embark on an adventure that begins in Ancient Greece, the birthplace of great thinkers, where the study of mathematics and the creation of money originated.
The imagery surrounding coins is one of the virtues of this story. How many characters have been immortalized on these small metal discs that have been in circulation for over two thousand years, since the 7th century BC? How did trade occur in ancient times, and what was the purchasing power of coins when they were first produced? These questions compel us to turn to numismatics, the science that studies all types of money and medals, sharpening our imagination and stimulating our curiosity.
And to think that many images of illustrious figures were only known thanks to their profiles depicted on coins, such as that of the famous Cleopatra! And what about a rocker Apollo? That's right, a rocker, with a guitar of the time, the zither.
Music, Math, and Money is a delightful journey through time. It encompasses 2,600 years of history condensed into a few, delightfully written chapters. Combined with state-of-the-art tablet technology and apps, the work is comprehensive and provides the reader with a multidisciplinary perspective on the subject. It's a book aimed at people of all ages who want to revisit mathematics teaching methods in Brazilian schools.
We learn to listen to music from birth. The mathematics of music came before the mathematics of finance. Drums, trumpets, lyres, horns, and money have been intertwined in human thought since ancient times.
The set of tools you will find in these pages adopts the mathematical logic of life itself, the one that says: "I am, therefore I think." Quite different from the old Cartesianism that says: "I think, therefore I am."
The multidisciplinary approach adopted combines music with geometry, computer science, currency exchange, calculus, financial history, and logical and analogical thinking about numbers and spoken and written language. The text provides several links to the virtual music of GarageBand, the iTunes app—for iPad, iPhone, and computer—and iTunes U courses.
