This week has been an exciting one here at Pitzer College. I’m currently co-teaching a class on “Mathematics and 3D Printing” with our Ceramics Professor, Tim Berg. Tim is also teaching a class on mold-making that I’ve been auditing when I can. For the benefit of both classes, Tim invited Bryan Czibesz, from SUNY New
Month: March 2016
The Islamic Cube
Many years ago my wife and I co-taught a class on the Mathematics of Tilings. We have a lot of Islamic tiling patterns around our house, and I think we were excited about the class because it gave us the chance to learn more about the general theory of tilings, as well as about how these particular
This project was neither Math nor Art, but it called on a lot of the skills I developed doing both, so I thought it appropriate to write about here. Last June I was contacted by our Office of Student Affairs about a student who would be joining us in the Fall. The student is visually impaired,
A Plurality of Polyhedra
A little over a year ago (February, 2015) I was contacted by Los Angles artist Clare Graham about making some models. He had become interested in the illustrations of polyhedra in the 1509 book De Divina Proportione, by Luca Pacioli. What’s significant about these illustrations is that they were done from woodcuts by Leonardo da
Apollonian Gaskets with Grasshopper
My son and I were recently watching Vi Hart’s wonderful “Doodling in Math Class” Video on Infinity Elephants. Around 1:30 in the video she starts talking about how to draw an Apollonian Gasket in a triangle: This got me wondering about how to code this object. It’s not a new challenge. Lot’s of people have done