cosmic waves bathing the universe. all of it explained, illuminated, and connected via mathematics. sometimes we call it harmonic analysis, other times we call it spectral analysis, but most people call it fourier analysis. of all these sensory experiences, perhaps music more than any other is the one that is most closely associated with mathematics. the greeks believed that beautiful music was mathematically based music and that there was a mystical connection between music and mathematics, that music was actually the mathematics of time. throughout history, music has been at the heart of human culture. its origins were most likely the patterns, rhythms, and tonalities of nature, sounds adapted and organized by humans to create melody, harmony, and rhythm. some of the earliest instruments were as simple as clapping hands. but it was the ancient greeks who first laid the foundations of our understanding of harmonics, how vibrating strings and columns of air produce overtones which are mathematically related. in fact, the word "music" itself derives from the muses, daughters of zeus