By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics A lathe is used to turn wood into baseball bats, spindles, and other shapes with rotational symmetry. It can also be applied to making many types of mathematical models. Bob Rollings made this construction from spindles that form the edges of an icosahedron inside of a dodecahedron. […]
MAKE’s science and chemistry author, Robert Bruce Thompson, has a new installment of his video series The Home Scientist, on acquiring chemicals for your home lab. This video is a nice companion to Bob’s piece in the Make: Science Room on the same subject: Chemicals on the cheap. See Bob’s YouTube channel for all of […]
By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics With paper and scissors and patience, you can make an amazing variety of mathematical forms. The paper sculpture below consists of twenty identical components that form a complex linkage. They lock together without glue in a very symmetric arrangement. If you want to try this, the template […]
Every once in a while, something gets submitted to us that resonates, tickles, informs, and/or inspires on a really deep, satisfying level. This is one of those items. Everything about it. The project itself, these super-cool origami airplanes, made from phonebook paper, the obvious dedication of the teacher who made this video and teaches his […]
By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics Beading is a traditional craft which recently has been applied to make interesting mathematical models. Here are some impressive examples by Bih-Yaw Jin, starting with a beaded Mobius strip. A beaded helical surface twists through space like a cork screw. All five Platonic solids are shown here, […]
The June theme for Make: Online is “Physical Science and Mechanics.” Physical science is a broadly used term that can be applied to the study of any non-living systems and how they interact, from the foundational physical laws of energy, matter, and force to the basic principles of simple machines (lever, pulley, inclined plane, wedge, […]
Based in Sydney, Australia, the talented crafter behind Morphologica is currently finishing up a PhD in neuroscience. Inspired by the beauty of science, offerings include the DNA pieces shown above as well as dendrites, neurons, and fancy, scrolling “Geek” and “Nerd” necklaces.
