A playground structure in downtown San Francisco cast some really lovely shadows that I struggled to capture.
The structure itself is a helical ramp that reminds me of a parametric surface area problem from multivariable calculus class.
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A beautiful sculpture and a beautiful blue sky in front of San Francisco’s Exploratorium. I wonder if the same artist was responsible for the temporary exhibit in Madison Square Park a few years ago?
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My latest column for Quanta Magazine makes a connection between high school geometry and recommendation engines used by companies like Netflix.
Adrienne is a Marvel movie fanatic: Her favorite films all involve the Hulk, Thor or Black Panther. Brandon prefers animated features like Inside Out, The Incredibles and anything with Buzz Lightyear. I like both kinds, although I’m probably closer to Adrienne than Brandon. And I might skew a little toward Cora, who loves thrillers like Get Out and The Shining.
Whose movie preferences are closest to yours: Adrienne’s, Brandon’s or Cora’s? And how far are your cinematic tastes from those of the other two? It might seem strange to ask “how far” here. That’s a question about distance, after all. What does distance mean when it comes to which movies you like? How would we measure it?
Using the perpendicular bisector–an elementary and underappreciated idea from high school geometry–we can carve up abstract data spaces into regions that can be fruitfully compared and contrasted. And knowing which region you lie in, and whom you are closest to, can help make predictions about your preferences.
To learn more, read the full article, which is freely available here.
This unexpected wall art showcasing various forms of hexagons was the reward for walking down a new street. The sprinkler connectors are watching.
This week I’ll be running a workshop, “The Problem with Pentagons”, for Math for America teachers.
The workshop focuses on the classification of pentagonal tilings of the plane. Although humans have been tiling with polygons for hundreds of years, the answer to the question “Which pentagons can tile the plane?” was only recently answered!
The surprising story of pentagonal tilings spans cultures, centuries, and disciplines. In addition to some beautiful geometry, the story is also filled with lots of twists and turns that illustrate the many ways in which mathematics happens. It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring living, breathing mathematics to our students, and I’m looking forward to discussing the many classroom connections with MfA teachers.
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