Ever wanted to look up a number and find out all kinds of things about it (like, if you’re making a mathematical advent calendar and want interesting facts about the date each day)? No longer do you have to sift through all the tedious non-maths facts you get if you look up a number on…
The next issue of the Carnival of Mathematics, rounding up blog posts from the month of November, and compiled by the team at Ganit Charcha to celebrate the birthday of Srinivasa Ramanujan, is now online at Ganit Charcha. The Carnival rounds up maths blog posts from all over the internet, including some from our own…
Mathematician and part-time calligrapher Andrew Stacey has assembled a beautiful guide to mathematical calligraphy, from the way mathematicians use notation to how different types of symbols can be written using calligraphy techniques. So you can sign all your Christmas cards with maths notation, and keep them looking pretty at the same time! This is part of the…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fhILAN9vOY&feature=youtu.be If the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” had gone up to day 16, that line might have gone “sixteen teals a-tessellating”, and it might look like the above video, made by Chris Watson. Chris has made some worksheets which can help you make your own tessellations. He also sells his own work at tessellationart.com.…
If you were wondering what happened with all the left-over wrapping paper from this morning’s post about wallpaper groups, Katie has made a YouTube video demonstrating some mathematical quirks of gift wrapping. Enjoy!
Christmas wrapping paper is sold in thousands of different variations, including plain, coloured, patterned, foiled and even flock, but one thing it’ll have in common is that it will repeat whatever pattern it has, regularly across the design. I’m interested in symmetry, and was intrigued to find a curious fact about the symmetries of such…
This is part of the Aperiodical Advent Calendar. We’ll be posting a new surprise for you each morning until Christmas!