Home - Natural Math

Math mind hacks: make predictions!

Posted on December 23, 2013 by

MariaD — 5 Comments ↓ Tagged with: Math Mind Hacks

Help your child learn this practice by asking prediction questions:

What do you think will happen?
What will change if we make the numbers different?
What do you think this new term may mean?

Encourage children to guess. This is not about right predictions at all. This is about activating your prior knowledge and future curiosity!

Eat your math cookies with Francesco De Comite

Posted on December 23, 2013 by

MariaD — No Comments ↓ Tagged with: Eat Your Math

Invite your kids to play with their food – and at the same time, with their math! Here are some Math Maker ideas and beautiful photos from our guest Francesco De Comite.

Escher bird tessellation cookies.

Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I am an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Sciences of Lille, France. My research is about geometry and the representation of mathematical shapes in 2D and 3D, using images or sculptures, paper models, or 3D printing. I am working somewhere between maths, programming, and art. In the spirit of George Hart’s work (have you seen his cookie roller?), I explore different ways of producing mathematical shapes.

Doyle Spiral would taste nice in chocolate, but for now, it’s virtual.

Escher moth tessellation cookies.

What do you like about food as a medium?
Food is an interesting field of investigation, since you can manipulate different textures, different softness, and different materials. Of course, I could have used clay, but the fact that the material is edible adds a dimension to this activity: I can create complicated shapes that I know will be eaten, and will disappear at the end. The fun is in the making, not in keeping the created objects.

These food sculptures definitely have child appeal. Do you have kids, or work with kids?
My children are a little bit old now to play with me, but they are always interested (and surprised) by what I am doing with cooking material. And they help me eat the work afterwards!

Apollonian gasket fractals grissini bread.

What activity would you recommend to kids or newbies who want to start playing with math – and their food?
Cookies, definitely: cut shapes, assemble elementary shapes to make mosaics, or use Sierpinski triangles…

What question do you want to ask your fans?
I am not sure I have fans, but I will be glad if my work gives ideas to other people, and I will be happy to see what they are able to invent in that same spirit.

Like It? Share It.

Posted in Make

Math goggles: shapes within shapes

Posted on December 21, 2013 by

MariaD — No Comments ↓ Tagged with: math goggles

Math Goggles help you notice math everywhere. Help your kids to recognize simple shapes within shapes. Next, use these simple shapes to make more complex art. Use math words as you do so. Touch real objects so you can “see” shapes with your hands, too!

Make simple shape stamps out of potatoes or linoleum. Then make fun compound shapes out of shapes! Potato stamp book via Mathematics and Life on Pinterest. We have a chapter on fractals – special shapes out of shapes – in the Moebius Noodles book.

Like It? Share It.

Posted in Grow

Math Goggles: 3D printer adventures with Moebius strips

Posted on December 19, 2013 by

MariaD — No Comments ↓ Tagged with: math goggles

Math Goggles help you notice math everywhere.

The Moebius strip is the metaphor for everything endless or cyclic. Like what? Check out these composite symbols!

infinity + luck = ?

cycle + chase = ?

endless + love = ?

Moebius strip can mean endless bacon, to end world hunger!

Moebius strip can stand for Pi being irrational.

“Mobius Ganesha is named for Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity who is the remover of obstacles. It is also a single sided surface. Like a complex Mobius strip, the inside and outside are one. This represents non-dualism as well as the intellectual integration of radically opposing concepts into singular understanding.”

Meta-Moebius is made of 36 interlocking Moebius strips, to represent infinity infinities. Or maybe to represent 36 infinities.

Jokes about infinity and alcohol just write themselves when you look at the elegant Moebius Sake* Cup. In unrelated news, Moebius cups are chiral; here’s a left-handed version.
(*)Also works with vodka.

Pac-Moebius and the never-ending chase.

Ensure infinite luck with one-sided die. You are guaranteed to roll any number you want, as long as it’s 1.

The never-ending loop of Crash Tests? Joyfully macabre! We are told these happy test dummies are named Vince and Larry. Imagine the attack of the test dummy clones. Vince 1, Larry 1, Vince 2, Larry 2…