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Life & fun · August 18, 2025

Playing Piano with Prime Numbers

Hi HN, I was already building a breakout game[1] just for fun, but then I thought—what if the bricks were news? So now, every time you smash a brick, you get a post and have to decide: read it or toss it. The idea came from realizing I skim through news way too fast, often skipping things that don’t immediately interest me. This was my way of slowing down and giving those overlooked posts a fighting chance. Give it a try! I also wrote a short post [2], detailing the physics behind the game. I spent quite a bit of time just fine-tuning the bounce logic: adjusting angles and adding random…

Playing Piano with Prime Numbers launched on August 18, 2025 with 8 votes, #2,487 of 8,530 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.

Visit nabraj.com ↗Alternatives

What it does

Explore how prime numbers can create music. Generate primes, map them to MIDI notes, and make a mini piano. A fun blend of math and sound.

Click Generate to create prime numbers, then click the Play icon to hear them. Mirror: Reflects primes around middle C, alternating above and below. Harmonic: Turns each prime into a chord (root + major 3rd + 5th). Spiral: Walks upward through the keyboard cyclically, like a spiral. Factors: Number of prime factors determines chord size andfrom nabraj.com

In the maker’s words, at launch

I decided to turn prime numbers into a mini piano and see what kind of music they could make. Inspired by: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44888548 Github: https://github.com/neberej/prime-piano

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