Numerology '08 continued with Added Sounds

yes, it is time for another mathematical, numerical celebration.

08/08/08.

As I said in June these kind of things happen only in 12 of the first 13 years of a century. I guess that's why we pay attention to them. It is interesting, however, to ponder why and how the playing with these kind of numerical events became items of superstition, luck, and just plain curiosity. What is it about our brains that connect to this?

I wonder if it is the same kind of thing that causes us to enjoy music which is truly a mathematical event even if we don't know it or understand it. Scales and chords are really based on intervals and ratios. Pitch (the particular frequency of a note like the tuning note of A-440) is actually mapped into the brain according to the actual frequency. Using the right imaging equipment you can actually recreate what notes a person is listening to by what places in the brain respond to each sound.

In addition dissonance or consonance, the chords or notes that sound BAD together vs the chords that sound good together, is located in some of the most primitive parts of the brain. Much to our surprise it is not our advanced human brain that can resonate to the musical (and mathematical) intervals of music.

So maybe, just maybe all this stuff with playing with numbers and seeing "consonance" in things like 06/07/08 and 08/08/08 are based in our neurons and brain structures. We look for such consonance because our brains want to find consonance and run away from dissonance.

Who knows for sure, but it is fun.