How Pythagoras turned math into a tool for understanding reality

The ‘music of the spheres’ was born from the effort to use numbers to explain the universe

An image of a white half circle at the bottom-center on a starry background. There are 8 arches spreading away from the circle.

The Pythagoreans believed that the motions of the heavenly bodies, with just the right ratios of their distances from a central fire, made pleasant music — a concept that evolved into the “music of the spheres.”

NASA, ESA, the GOODS Team, and M.