nebusresearch

Through the Interesting Esoterica postings on Mathstodon I learned of this neat post. Joseph O’Rourke published this year Pop-Up Geometry: The Mathematics Behind Pop-Up Cards. I haven’t got the book (yet), but O’Rourke has a page with animated GIFs showing how basic shapes work. The animations, even without narrative, are eye-opening, revealing how to make … Continue reading "How Pop-Up Cards and Books Work"

While poking around on Mathstodon, the mathematics-themed instance of the Twitter-like Mastodon, I ran across this. It’s “Mathober 2022”, the third of a series of daily doodling prompts, all built on mathematics themes. The list of topics, and the goal of the exercise, is described here. The idea is to take a chance to do … Continue reading "Have You Considered Spending Next Month Drawing Mathematics?"

I have a delightful trifle for you today. It is, like a couple of other arithmetic games, from a paper by Inder J Taneja, who has a wonderful eye for this sort of thing. It’s based on the sort of puzzle you might use to soothe your thoughts: how can you represent a whole number, … Continue reading "Some Fun Ways to Write Numbers but Complicated"

With the start of another month it’s a chance to use my weekly publication slot to review the previous month. Also I’ve somehow settled on publishing one essay a week. That was never a deliberate choice, just an attempt to keep my schedule in line with my energy and enthusiasm during a time that’s drained … Continue reading "How August 2022 Treated My Mathematics Blog: Romania Has Tired Of Me"

Many of my readers likely remember Denise Gaskins, who organizes the Playful Math Education Blog Carnival. Gaskins has other projects to help people, particularly parents, with mathematics education. One of them is a Kickstarter. It’s nearly completed — it’s to close the 1st of September at 9 pm Eastern — and it has already made … Continue reading "You Could Help Make an Educational Kickstarter More Successful"

The handful of comic strips I’ve chosen to write about this week include a couple with characters who want to not be wrong. That’s a common impulse among people learning mathematics, that drive to have the right answer. Will Henry’s Wallace the Brave for the 8th opens the theme, with Rose excited to go to … Continue reading "Reading the Comics, August 14, 2022: Not Being Wrong Edition"

I’ve had several weeks since my last Reading the Comics post. They’ve been quiet enough weeks. Let me share some of the recent offerings from Comic Strip Master Command that I enjoyed, though. I enjoy many comic strips but not all of them mention something on-point here. Isabella Bannerman’s Six Chix for the 18th of … Continue reading "Reading the Comics, August 5, 2022: Catching Up Edition"

I’d missed the chance to share it last week, as the readership report somehow took priority and the publication slot. Sue VanHattum’s Math Momma Writes … blog is the most recent host of the Playful Math Blog Carnival. Here’s the July 2022 installment, the 157th of the series. VanHattum won me over right away by … Continue reading "Here’s the 157th Playful Math Blog Carnival"

I have not given up on my mathematics blog, though I admit to its commanding less attention than I have sometimes given it. I have had less attention to give everything. In a month of writing that comes pretty close to simple maintenance mode, I expect pretty average readership figures. I did not have them. … Continue reading "How July 2022 Treated My Mathematics Blog: Romania liked me"

I don’t plan to have one. Some context. Since 2015 I’ve run a series of A-to-Z essays. This is writing a short glossary about various mathematics terms. Most years they were a complete pass through the alphabet, with some fudging to allow for there being fewer terms that start with ‘X’ than you’d think. For … Continue reading "About my 2022 Mathematics A-to-Z"