Symmetry of Sound: Getting the public into musical maths

At the end of the eighteenth century, the courts of Europe thrilled to the demonstrations of a violin bow being dragged across the side of a metal plate. It was not the sound, but the shapes that were appearing in the sand scattered on the metal plate that so excited audiences.
Mathematician Ernst Chladni discovered extraordinary symmetrical patterns hidden inside the strange noise of the vibrating plate.
Inspired by Chladni’s performances, Marcus du Sautoy and his team have developed activities to engage young people, adults and families with sound and symmetry while exploring the mathematics and physics behind the emerging patterns and how it is relevant to instrument design, quantum physics and even the theory of prime numbers.