Maths in Nature – artist and mathematician Nikki Graziano has a rather nice selection of images of so-called ‘found functions’, or superimpositions of graphed functions over shapes in nature.
Some of them look a little contrived, but nevertheless almost give you the idea of the numbers that lie just below the surface of everything. And that The God of Whizz likes.
(via Kottke.org)
Voronoi Diagrams explain much more than their apparently random patterns seem to indicate.
With the help of a pen, paper, ruler, set-square and some patience, you can make your very own honeycomb-like Voronoi Diagram (via Metafilter).
Not what you might generally expect to read on a Friday, but a reminder of an elegant geometry puzzle in today’s Financial Times letters page.
Take a square of 8 x 8 units = 64 square units. Divide it into two triangles of 3 units x 8 units and two polygons with two sides of 5 units and one side of 3 units and rearrange those four pieces into a rectangle – see above. The resultant rectangle will be 5 units by 13 units = 65 square units! One square unit out of nothing?
Without giving too much away, the apparent paradox of taking one shape and making a larger shape using the same pieces in fact isn’t a paradox at all. It’s more of a sneak.
I won’t link directly to a solution, but if you want one, I suggest you give the excellent ‘Cut the Knot‘ website a try.
We suggest you explore their website for puzzles that will draw on and enrich your child’s experience with our maths tutor.
Courtesy of Miazagora’s Homeschool Minutes, a fantastically bad geometry pun.
The wives of three English country gentlemen all became pregnant at about the same time. Two of these gentlemen provided the traditional cow hide as a bedcovering, while the third gentleman sent off to Africa for a hippopotamus skin to use as a bed covering for his wife. The first two women each had a boy while the third was blessed with twin boys.
Which goes to show that: The sons of the squires of the hides is equal to the squire of the hippopotamus.
[groan]
Of course, if you’ve forgotten Pythagoras’ theorem, refresh your memory, or just get some top maths tutoring with Whizz.com!
That’s all! Have a lovely weekend…
