IA ideas library
Maths IA ideas in art, music and design
Art and music are full of mathematics: sine waves in sound, ratios in scales, symmetry groups in patterns, curves in typography and logos. These ideas are good for students who want an IA that feels creative.
Beware the golden ratio: it is the single most over-used IA context, and most claims about it do not survive measurement. If you use it, make testing the claim the point of the IA.
Art, music & design ideas (9)
- Is the golden ratio really everywhere? Testing a popular claimAI SLAI HLAA SLAA HLSolid
- Why does a piano have twelve notes per octave?AA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- Why do a flute and a violin sound different on the same note?AA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- Symmetry in Islamic geometric art: which wallpaper groups appear?AA HLAA SLAmbitious
- How are letters drawn on a screen? Bézier curvesAA HLAA SLAI HLSolid
- How accurate is the perspective in a Renaissance painting?AA SLAI SLAA HLAI HLSolid
- Why do sunflower seeds form spirals? The golden angleAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- What curve do straight lines make in string art?AA SLAA HLSolid
- Why are camera f-stops 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6?AA SLAI SLAA HLAI HLAccessible
Also relevant (8)
- Is a hanging chain a parabola? Catenary versus quadratic modelsAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- Which function best describes the arch of a famous bridge?AA SLAI SLAccessible
- Can statistics tell two authors apart?AI SLAI HLAA SLSolid
- Do TV series really get worse over time?AI SLAI HLAccessible
- Designing a working sundial for my latitudeAA SLAA HLAI SLAI HLSolid
- Beyond Fibonacci: what ratio do other recurrence sequences approach?AA HLAA SLSolid
- Why does Pascal's triangle make a fractal?AA HLAA SLSolid
- Why is the main body of the Mandelbrot set a cardioid?AA HLAmbitious
Frequently asked questions
Is the golden ratio a good IA topic?
Only if you test a claim properly — for example, measure many examples, estimate measurement error and use a statistical test to decide whether the ratios really cluster near 1.618. Simply finding it in a painting is not enough.
What maths is behind music?
Sound waves are sums of sine functions, musical intervals are frequency ratios, and equal temperament uses a geometric sequence with ratio the twelfth root of 2.
Tools for every stage of your IA
Other topics: Modelling · Calculus · Differential equations · Statistics · Probability · Geometry & Voronoi · Finance · Sport · Environment · Health & biology · Networks & graphs · Pure maths · Games & puzzles