Math Monday: Catenary Arch Toy
Here is a seven-piece arch in the shape of a catenary, similar to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. If you have access to a 3D printer, you can make the pieces using the files available here.
Math Monday
Math Monday: Tensegrity Balls
Here is a bouncy structure made of dowels and rubber bands in which no sticks directly touch each other. The compression members are not connected, yet the entire structure supports compression, which is an unusual property often called “tensegrity.”
Math Monday: Make Your Own Pentominoes!
A pentomino is like a domino, but with five connected squares instead of two. A set of all twelve can easily be cut from scraps of plywood.
Math Monday: Candy Pi Calculator
There are many ways to calculate an approximation to pi, but rarely is math as delicious as in this idea from Davidson College professor Tim Chartier. Make a quarter circle in a square of graph paper and place chocolate chips on the squares that lie inside the circle. If you now count the chips and compute four times the number of chocolate chips divided by the total number of squares, that will be approximately pi.
Math Monday: Flexible Stick Structures
Bradford Hansen-Smith has been experimenting with structures made from a great many 10-inch bamboo skewers held together with short pieces of rubber tubing. He calls the technique Stickweaving and presents a gallery of interesting examples. Modular units connect to neighboring units with tubing and the entire structure is flexible enough to be collapsed or morphed into various surfaces.
Vi Hart on “What is Up with Noises?”
The amazing Vi Hart (daughter of our Math Monday columnist George Hart) has blown our minds again with this over 12 minute video explaining the math, science, and art behind sound. In many of Vi’s videos, she talks really fast, and it’s a style that works for her, but for something this info-dense, with lots of visual aids, it’s worth going through a few times to absorb everything.
Math Monday: Make a Mathematical Haircut
A mathematical haircut makes an unambiguous statement to the world that you love math. Here, Nick Sayers is sporting a rhombic coiffure with interesting geometric properties.
