Periodic Melodies

Eric Weinstein and Terrence Howard recently appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, discussing various topics including the flower of life, platonic solids, and the academic peer review process.

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During the conversation, Eric shared a video from his friend, Stanley Jordan, who has mapped musical tones to the periodic table of elements.

Inspired by this innovative approach, I created a web-based version of this concept. The idea is to assign musical frequencies to elements based on their ionization energies. Here's how it works:

1. Normalization of Ionization Energy:

   $E_{norm} = \frac{E_i - E_{min}}{E_{max} - E_{min}}$

   Where $E_i$ is the ionization energy of an element, $E_{min}$ and $E_{max}$ are the minimum and maximum ionization energies.

2. Frequency Mapping:

   $f = f_{low} + E_{norm} \cdot (f_{high} - f_{low})$

   Where $f_{low}$ and $f_{high}$ are the lower and upper frequency bounds.

3. Quantization:

   $semitones = round(12 \cdot \log_2(\frac{f}{440})) + chromatic + 12 \cdot octave$

   $f_{quantized} = 440 \cdot 2^{\frac{semitones}{12}}$

In simple terms, quantization adjusts the calculated frequency to the nearest musical note.

If you're interested, you can explore the interactive version at gavinmai.com/periodic-melodies.

I welcome any feedback or suggestions for future features. Please use the feedback form on the website to share your thoughts.