The Armonica, also called the glass harmonica was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. In 1757, while in England he attended a concert given on the wine glasses. He thought it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard but he wanted to hear more harmonies with his melody. Thus the Armonica was born and named by Franklin for a word taken from the musical Italian language. It has been said that if the harp is “the instrument of the Angels”, then the Armonica is “the voice of the Angels”.
Category Archives: Music
Be Happy
World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus”, from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.
Angle of Incidence = Music
Turn your sound up. Draw lines on the black screen to bounce the balls. Enjoy the music.
In Case You Groan, There's a Bathroom on the Right
Instant classic misheard lyric because of our new president.
But it’s no ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy, bathroom on the right, or touched for the thirty-first time
Come in Here, Dear Boy, Have a Cigar
By the way, which one’s Pink?
The Factual One ponders The physics of… Pink Floyd?
What’s more interesting is the fact that the refractive index is generally not a constant. Within the same material it can be different for different wavelengths. Usually – but not quite always – higher frequency light experiences a higher refractive index. It gets bent harder. It’s not obvious at the level of classes I teach why this should be so. Since the details aren’t really the key issue, the main thing to remember whether it’s high frequency or high wavelength that gets bent most strongly. It can be difficult to remember, until I remind the class about this:
[cue Dark Side of the Moon album cover]
More discussion at The Quantum Pontiff
Don't Take This Out of Context
In Context by Field Music. Ran across this at Ovablastic — I think the artistic approach of the video is pretty neat, and I instantly liked the tune.
The pen leaves the drawing surface once, but restarts at the same point.
Something for the Résumé
Try and guess the song.
Billy Joel, in the Library, with the Lead Pipe
Mathematician Cracks Mystery Beatles Chord
The opening chord to A Hard Day’s Night is also famous because for 40 years, no one quite knew exactly what chord Harrison was playing. Musicians, scholars and amateur guitar players alike had all come up with their own theories, but it took a Dalhousie mathematician to figure out the exact formula.
Say It Isn't So
In the 80s music videos link from the other day I noticed the unsurprising absence of BLOTTO, a favorite Albany (NY)-based band from my high school/ college days (along with Fear of Strangers, aka The Units). So I went and looked for them on YouTube.
I must protest what I found.
This has to be the worse attempt at striking gold in the 80’s punk rock scene.
Punk? Dude, Blotto was not punk. They were a campy spoof-music band. Worst music video ever? Please.
I Wanna Be A Lifeguard
And I was there when they filmed the live footage. (I’m pretty sure I know one of the people visible in the crowd shot at 2:37, though she has kids now and is taking the fifth.)
Metalhead is after the jump. Sarge would always bite the head off of something during the song.
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Time Travelin' Tunes
From the good old days when MTV played music videos, men were women and women were men.
Only one per artist, though, so if you want Ant Music, or even Goody Two Shoes, you’re out of luck; you get Kings of the Wild Frontier.