Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

by Charles Seife

This philosophy—the interchangeability of music, math, and nature—led to the earliest Pythagorean model of the planets. Pythagoras argued that the earth sat at the center of the universe, and the sun, moon, planets, and stars revolved around the earth, each pinned inside a sphere (Figure 8). The ratios of the sizes of the spheres were nice and orderly, and as the spheres moved, they made music. The outermost planets, Jupiter and Saturn, moved the fastest and made the highest-pitched notes. The innermost ones, like the moon, made lower notes. Taken all together, the moving planets made a “harmony of the spheres,” and the heavens are a beautiful mathematical orchestra. This is what Pythagoras meant when he insisted, “All is number.”