I admit it. The only reason I bought this squash
was to see if I could use Geogebra to fit a curve to it, like this.
And let me tell you, figuring out that this equation did the job
was not as easy as I thought it would be.
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Inspired by a brilliant talk by Erik Demaine, I started playing around with the famous one-cut problem: given a shape made up of straight line segments, can you fold the paper flat in such a way that with only one straight cut your shape will appear?
Having no real experience with mathematical paper folding, I thought I’d try out a Koch Curve. Well, a finite iteration of it, at least.
It seemed like the strategy was to use the symmetry of the shape to make all the line segments line up on each other. So I folded down the middle, and then again down the new middle.
I rotated the last shape and it seemed a little clearer how to continue.
It seemed like all the lines were lined up, so to speak. So I cut. And voila!
Not too bad! Now, if I could just figure out how to do this with non-symmetric figures.
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This is a great interactive Rock-Paper-Scissors game from the New York Times website:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/rock-paper-scissors.html
The computer will narrate its strategy for you as you play, telling you whether it has correctly predicted your choice or not.
Skeptical? Play the game against the Veteran computer and watch it beat you! Then, go check out this infographic for some tips on how to improve your play.
It might be fun to pit a 6-sided die against the computer to see what happens.
Here’s a nice six-minute distraction: a fun quiz from Sporcle, testing your knowledge of some science and math trivia.
http://www.sporcle.com/games/Flick/10to1sciefun
I won’t be bragging about my score. Let’s just say that my knowledge of Platonic Solids far surpassed my knowledge of type of clouds.
Through Math for America, I am part of an on-going collaboration with the New York Times Learning Network. My latest contribution, a Test Yourself quiz-question, can be found here:
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/test-yourself-march-2-2011/
This problem is based on the re-opening of long-closed gold mines due to the rising price of gold. Apparently, it’s now financially worthwhile to go back in and collect the scraps that were left behind.