Math Monday

Beginning of a String

Beginning of a String

Although there have been two different Math Mondays touching just tangentially on the wonderful world of string art, it has never covered the basics of the area, and it’s high time. (Why is it high time? Hint: in preparation for non-basics to come…) The fundamental idea is that you create one or more series of connection points, regular in some way, and then stretch taut strings between the connections (again, typically in some orderly fashion), producing (hopefully!) an interesting, beautiful, and/or mathematically significant overall pattern.

Still Going ‘Round in Circles

Still Going ‘Round in Circles

Well, Math Mondays might as well just go ahead and admit it. It is incurably addicted to great circles. Inspired by the latest reader feedback on the topic, Math Mondays decided to team up with Grace Whitney of Stony Brook, NY to polish off the outstanding great circle challenge: the 25-circle arrangement beloved of Buckminster Fuller. The ingredients of today’s approach are simple: a big transparent inflatable ball and 18.4 meters of elastic sewn into 25 loops just the right size to stretch around a great circle of the ball.