Pat Ashforth has written in to say that she’s released a new free knitting pattern for a Klein bottle hat with a – wait for it – twist!
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3D-printed mathematical objects roundup
3D printers are ace. People are using them to make all sorts of cool things. If you can describe a shape to a computer, it’s very easy to send that description to a 3D printer, which will happily smoosh some substrates together to make a real model of your shape. Mathematicians are able to describe all sorts of crazy shapes, in exactly the amount of detail computers need, so they’ve taken to 3D printing like ducks to water.
Thingiverse is just a repository for designs, so if you see something you like you’ll have to find your own 3D printer. Shapeways makes the objects and posts them to you; prices can vary from just a few euros to hundreds, depending on the size of the object and the materials used.
As with all other kinds of mathematical art, there’s a huge amount of repetition of the same few ideas, but also a few really interesting and unique designs. I’ve picked a couple of representatives from each of the popular topics, but do search around if you want a version with slightly different parameters; you’re bound to find something suitable.
For the past few months I’ve been quietly compiling a list of interesting mathematical objects I’ve found on the main 3D printing catalogues, Thingiverse and Shapeways. With Christmas approaching, I thought now would be as good a time as any to share what I’ve found.
Recreational Maths Seminar – Seven Staggering Sequences
Yesterday I hosted another recreational maths seminar on Google+. I had a lot of fun! We discussed the paper, Seven Staggering Sequences (PDF), by Neil Sloane. In the paper Sloane, the man behind the fantastic Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, described seven of the sequences he found most especially interesting.
The Hangout was just under an hour and a half long, and we managed to get through five of the seven sequences. Some of them are really hard to understand!
[youtube url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBvyaku9Omw]
Newcastle MathsJam November 2012 Recap
I’ve written up my souvenirs of this month’s Newcastle MathsJam over on my mathem-o-blog.
STYN by Sam van Doorn
STYN by Sam van Doorn. Parabolae galore!
via Colossal
Recreational Maths Seminar this Sunday at 7pm GMT
There was no Recreational Maths Seminar last Sunday because I had a confluence of work, family stuff and overknackeredness from MathsJam the week before. The coming weekend should be considerably less busy, so let’s have our second seminar this Sunday, the second of December, at 7pm GMT. That’s 2pm EST (New York), 11am PST(California) and 6am EDT (Eastern Australia, on the 3rd of December).
The Joy of $x$, by Steven Strogatz
Steven Strogatz has written a book based on his series of columns for the New York Times, The Elements of Math. The book’s called The Joy of $x$, and Steven’s recorded a trailer for it. I bet he hopes the trailer will convince you to buy the book.
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPttaSg8ySc]