The Curious Nature of Drummers’ Brains

  In a 2011 article in the New Yorker Burkhard Bilger wrote about neuroscientist David Eagleman and his research into time and the brain especially drummers’ brains.

Some of the drummers he has interviewed and/or tested include William Champion of Cold Play, Brian Eno of Roxy Music and Larry Mullen, Jnr of U2.

Eno, on keyboards (above) who was working on a U2 album,  talks about Mullen’s amazing timing.  They were using a click-track (computer generated beat) when mMullen complained he couldn’t drum to it. ENO adjusted the beat. Mullen was happy.

ENO adjusted the beat by 6 milliseconds!!!!!!!!!

6 thousandths of a second.

Cool Larry Mullen Jnr Drum solo

Tempo is measured in beats per minute or bpm. 

Drum Beats for different tracks:

Here are some drum beats provided by Justin Alan Cox so you can get your timing right:

60 bpm

80 bpm

100 bpm

120 bpm

Drummer Maths:

How Cool a Drummer are you?

Pick a beat and see how accurate you can beat tempo. Time how long it takes you to beat out 60, 80, 100 or 120 drum beats using a pencil.  It should, obviously, take one minute if you are an ENO or a Mullens.

What was the difference in time in seconds?

Calculate your % error = time error (sec)/(60 sec) x 100

Bilger’s conclusion:

‘Like perfect pitch, which dooms the possessor to hear every false note and flat car horn, perfect timing may just make a drummer more sensitive to the world’s arrhythmias and repeated patterns, Eagleman said—to the flicker of computer screens and fluorescent lights. Reality, stripped of an extra beat in which the brain orchestrates its signals, isn’t necessarily a livelier place. It’s just filled with badly dubbed television shows.’

Headbanger Maths

The NHS reports that Australian Researchers Declan Patton and Andrew McIntosh, Uni of NSW, have conducted a study into brain and neck injuries of headbangers published in British Medical Journal.

Concerts included as part of the study included Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, The Hell City Glamours, L.A. Guns, Ozzy Osbourne, Winger, Ratt, Whitesnake and W.A.S.P.

Here’s Motorhead with a ‘nice’ moshpit.

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The Headbanger Study Concluded:

1. Head movement of more than 75^o for an average heavy metal beat will cause head and neck injuries. This movement causes headache and dizziness.

 2. Beats above 130 bpm (beats per minute) cause neck injury.

The average headbanging song has a tempo of about 146 beats per minute (bpm).

and according to Mathspig:

3. Being punched up in the mosh pit. Do you need maths for that conclusion?

Researchers recommendations:

1. Reduce range of head and neck movement

2. Headbang to a  slower tempo

3. Wear a neck brace. (Isn’t a bad hair cut enough?)

Headbanger Rates Exercise:

How many headbeats per hour would a headbanger manage for the following song tempos. Here are just a few tempos form Play Drums Now blog:

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Mathspigs excited .Look there is a band called Mutemath!!!!!!!! And here they are:

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Just to show that there is something spookily primitive about headbanging here is Headbanger Baby:

 

 

Hunger Game: Survival Maths 1

How long can you live if you are bleeding?

Unlike Kill Bill where Tarantino used, literally, hundreds of litres of fake blood (See Mathspig Post: Don’t Bleed Your Fake Blood on Me), The Hunger Games shows very little blood.

Nevertheless 11 tributes are killed violently in the first few minutes of the game and Peeta is wounded later in the movie(pic with Katniss above).

To calculate how long you would last in The Hunger Games if bleeding we must know your volume of blood and the rate of bleeding.

1. How much blood do you have?

According to the BJA, the British Journal of Anaesthesia, blood volume is  7% of body weight in adults and 8 – 9 % of body weight in children.  Doctors are not confusing weight and volume. Blood is very close to the density of water and so 1 litre of blood weighs 1 kg. 

(NB: Future Engineers: Blood does not flow like water as the blood platelets affect the viscosity.)

Using blood volume (in litres) as 8% of body weight (in kg) then typical blood volumes for teenagers would be:

Age Group	Blood Volume litres Female	Blood Volume litres Male
12	4.3	4.0
14	4.7	5.1
16	5.0	6.1
18	5.3	6.6

 

2. How long would you last if bleeding?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Obviously, it will depend on the rate of bleeding.

According to the BJA massive blood loss equals a blood loss rate of 150ml/min or 50% of blood volume loss within 3 hrs.

 BLOOD LOSS EQUATION:

B = total blood loss ml

R = rate blood loss in ml/ min = 150 ml / min

t = time min

B = Rt

B = 150 t

According to New Scientist loss of blood IN THE AVERAGE ADULT produces the following symptoms:

A  750 ml: feel blood loss

B  1500: weak, thirsty & anxious

C  2000 ml : dizzy, unconscious

D  3000 ml: Dead

See A, B, C and D on graph below.

3. How long have you got?

First, calculate  50% of your blood volume for your age.

Now go to the blood loss graph and see how long it would take you to lose this volume.

You can stop doing the maths now, mathspiggies, and get some help to stop the bleeding.

Lego Olympics Triathlon

This is the Lego Triathlon.

And, mathspiggies, your Lego Man/girl/alien has made it into the finals. 

…………………………………………..

EQUIPMENT: Your Lego Man, girl, alien, your brain, a calculator & one dice.

…………………………………………………………………

In the Olympic Triathlon contestants:

…………………………………………………………..

.

.

Swim 1.5 km = 1,500 m

Cycle 40 km = 40,000 m

Run 10 km = 10, 000 m

.

.

.

.

In a Lego Olympic Triathlon little Lego men, girls, aliens have to:

.

Swim 1,500/50 = 30m

Cycle 40,000/50 = 800m

Run  10,000/50 = 200m

But each contestant will be better at some section than another.

Your Lego man, girl, alien replaces one of the following contestants. Transfer their number and times to your column.

Now calculate the Total Times for each contestant.

THEN roll the dice.

3. Disqualified because your coach gave you an alien Smoosnot drink with banned drugs by mistake.

5. Disqualified because a Groppanator from the Urgastor Galaxy ran out of the crowd just before the finish line and hugged you with his 6 arms.

Triathlete	30 m Swim Speed + Time	800m Cycle Speed + Time	200m run Speed + Time	Total Time mins	Roll 3 or 5 Disqualified
1 Mummy’s Boy from Crytomania	40 m/hr ……………	400 m/hr ……………	250m/hr ……………	………….	…………..
2 PJ Boy from Pajamarama	30 m/hr ……………	200 m/hr ……………	500 m/hr ……………	………….	…………..
3 Olag from Beserk	40 m/hr ……………	200 m/hr ……………	500 m/hr ……………	………….	…………..
4 Dead-Eye Doc from AyeAwArghia	60 m/hr ……………	400 m/hr ……………	450 m/hr ……………	…………..	…………..
5 Hula Lula from Grinmania	50 m/hr ……………	400 m/hr ……………	500 m/hr ……………	………….	…………..
6 Mr Boopy from Bozonia	30 m/hr ……………	600 m/hr ……………	200 m/hr ……………	…………..	…………..
7 Gorilla Suit Guy from Halloweenotopia	50 m/hr ……………	500 m/hr ……………	300 m/hr ……………	…………..	…………….
8 BioHaz from Toxorama	60 m/hr ……………	500 m/hr ……………	400 m/hr ……………	…………..	…………..
………………… from ………………..	…………… + ………………..	…………….. + ……………..	…………….. + ……………..	…………..	…………..

Who won?

You can work it out mathspigs.

Total Times are published @ the end of The Lego Olympics Closing Ceremony.

Zombie Maths 1: Rates

First, mathspigs, to do Zombie Maths we must

promise to follow the Zombie Code

and be ghoulish, scary and unnice in an undead way.

We must also observe

The 10 Universal Laws of Zombie, sort of.

…

Velocity of a Zombie:

This is fun. To find the velocity of a Zombie mark out 10m on the floor. Ask students to imitate a Zombie and time them. This will involve deep and meaningful Zombie arguments about who is the best Zombie.

Mathspig was a Zombie while Mr Mathspig timed her. It took Zombiepig 16 seconds to zombie walk 10m. Here are the calculations:

A Zombie Arm can move much faster. Here are some calculations based on a guestimate using this link of Crawling Zombie.

..

Velocity of Zombie Arm:

According to these calculations Zombie Arm is Faster than a speeding chicken, but not as fast as an angry Squirrel. See Animal Olympics link.

Watch for the zombie arm

… it will grab your ankle

and NEVER let go!!!