For many students, music and math couldn't seem more different.

Music theorists, however, have shown that sound and numbers aren't as unrelated as they may appear.

Julian Hook, assistant professor of music theory, says that the relationship between the two disciplines is "a little bit elusive. Few people can put their finger on what it is."

The quadrivium, the higher division of the seven liberal arts of the Middle Ages, was composed of astronomy, geometry, arithmetic and music.

Hook explained that geometry is the study of bodies at rest, astronomy is the study of bodies in motion, arithmetic is the study of numbers at rest, and music is the study of numbers in motion.

"Music and mathematics tickle the same part of your brain. The best predictor of music theory scores for freshmen is SAT math scores," said Hook, who holds doctorates in both fields.

For many years, math has been used in music to create more interesting pieces.

In the early 20th century, Arnold Schoenberg composed "serial music" that used systematic, mathematical manipulations of notes.

Even Mozart used math in his works, though perhaps not intentionally.

"Mozart was not consciously applying mathematics, but it's mathematical in ways people haven't expected," Hook said.

The reason that math and music are so complementary is hard to define. Hook explained music is unlike physics -- a subject in which one is looking for laws of nature.

"There is a grammar to music. It follows predictable patterns," he said.

Still, music theorists aren't entirely clear about the technical details.

"Part of it is acoustics and other natural phenomena, but that doesn't explain everything," Hook said.

As an example of a geometric aspect of sound, simply consider sheet music.

The horizontal dimension, representing rhythm, is a way to divide up a unit of time.

The vertical dimension represents pitch.

If there are mathematical underpinnings for music, then computers should be able to create new pieces without the help of humans.

David Cope's Experiments in Musical Intelligence does just that.

Based on a database of already existing music, the program can compose new works in a similar style.

For example, a person inputs Chopin's music into the program, it will create new music that sounds as thoughChopin had written it.

Brian McNulty (senior-music and math) said he understands the relationship between music and mathematics.

While working towards degrees in both studies, he wrote a paper about neo-Riemannian analysis, which uses algebraic techniques to study late 19th century music.

McNulty has also found that practicing music every day helps prepare him for the rest of his classes.

Why study the link between math and music?

"It's an intellectual exercise," Hook said.

"There are compositional applications that would give you new ways of writing music.

"A desire to understand how things work is a very powerful one."