
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.

<a href="/periodic-melodies" target="_blank" class="shadcn-button">Open App</a>

https://www.youtube.com/embed/nrOaFxNex7U

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

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GnMEOD4zZDc

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.

<figure>
  <a href="https://www.gavinmai.com/periodic-melodies?ref=blog" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;">
    <img src="./images/periodic-melodies.png" alt="periodic-melodies" style="cursor: pointer;" />
    <figcaption style="color: inherit;">Assigning Musical Tones to Periodic Table: visualization from gavinmai.com</figcaption>
  </a>
</figure>

If you're interested, you can explore the interactive version at [gavinmai.com/periodic-melodies](https://www.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.
