Suoni, colori e parole delle formule matematiche

Celletti, Alessandra

Matematica, cultura e società, Série 1, Tome 9 (2024) no. 1, pp. 29-38

Résumé

The Moon plays a special role for the abitability of our planet. This conclusion is reached after having reviewed some notions of Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Systems theory. The main scientific ingredients are Kepler's two-body problem, Newton's law of gravity, chaos theory, the spin-orbit problem. However, the main theme of this work will be to show some examples of interaction between science and art. We start by observing how Kepler skilfully combines astronomy and music, while Newton associates elements of optics with musical notes. We then observe the role of gravity in painting and how it has been interpreted by some artists; chaos theory is found in literature, cinema, and it is even proposed for dating some paintings. We conclude by stressing the importance of the Moon which, from an artistic point of view, has been a source of inspiration for many writers and which, from a scientific point of view, helps to keep the Earth's axis of rotation stable, thus playing a role of climate stabiliser for our planet.