What? Math and music??

I have heard and seen (from some websites) that music actually can improve your ability to solve math problems. Is it really true?? I myself is learning music, so i guess this interesting topic will help me identify shortcuts to good grades....

After some research I found out that this is more than a rumor...

Experiment 1:
Study shows that pupils who trained on the piano keyboard and played with a specially designed computer math game during the four-month study scored 27% higher on math problems than did a control group that took English classes and played the same game.
The researchers say that learning the piano and how to read music helps children understand note values, such as an eighth note being half of a quarter note.

Experiment 2:
Another group of high-schoolers volunteered to have the experiment tested on them. When the high-schoolers listened to pop music or another classical composer, the music didn’t affect them on a test, but when they listened to Mozart, they got higher test scores.
Then the testers had a different group sit in 10 minutes silence they also thought that sitting in silence helped your brain. The group that listened to Mozart also sat and listened to Mozart for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes were up, both groups took the same test. The Mozart group scored higher. <- Mozart effect??

Music targets one specific area of the brain to stimulate the use of spatial-temporal reasoning, which is useful in mathematical thinking. ST reasoning would be utilized in activities like chess when one needs to think ahead several moves.

However, Whether or not music improves math skill, it has no relevance to many musicians. Most musicians practice music because of the wonders and joy they feel and earn by playing music even if they are not aware of the math that is in music. So in any case, do try to pick up music as a hobby.

(references:http://library.thinkquest.org/4116/Music/music.htm, http://jackhdavid.thehouseofdavid.com/papers/math.html- http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52305.html- http://members.cox.net/mathmistakes/music.htm)

Music & Plants

Have you ever heard that music can affect plant growth?
Many scientists have done experiments regarding this. Dorothy Retallack used 3 laboratories containing the same species of plants. She used different types of music for each lab. The plants in the laboratory where music was played daily for 3 hours a day grew twice as large and became twice as healthy as those in a music-free environment. On the other hand, plants in the laboratory where music was played for eight hours a day died within two weeks.

Dorothy Retallack also tried experimenting with different types of music. She played rock music to one group of plants and soothing music to another. The group that heard rock turned out to be sickly and small whereas the other group grew large and healthy. What's more surprising is that the group of plants listening to the soothing music grew bending towards the radio just as they bend towards the sunlight!

Although music is not an absolutely proven factor in plant development, several studies have aided the musical development theory. Some relates this to how music (eg. classical music) affects the human brain positively. So basically, the effect on music on plants can be drastic; noisy music will only make the plants grow feeble and sick. Play classical music (Bach, beethoven, chopin) to make your plant grow better. Even if it isn't classical music, I believe, just soothing music will have the same effect.
Reference ( http://www.ukpianos.co.uk/plants-respond-to-music.html ; http://www.miniscience.com/projects/plantmusic/index.html ; http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_effects_of_music_on_plants)

If you want to try this experiment yourself, follow the steps here: http://www.freesciencefairproject.com/projects/plants_music.html
So basically, just expose plants to 2 different type of music : rock and classical.
See the difference for yourself.