Here’s a a student-built snub dodecahedron that resulted from a session I led in July 2018 at The College of New Jersey. It uses the classic “marshmallow and toothpick” construction technique, just with styrofoam balls in place of the marshmallows and 1/8″ diameter dowels in place of the toothpicks.
Read More
I recently purchased a large number of styrofoam balls as supplies for an upcoming build (about which I will post later). The plans for that build required the diameter of the styrofoam balls, to pretty high accuracy.
Read MoreHey, I have recently become problem editor for the undergraduate Math Horizons magazine of the Mathematical Association of America. So I’d love if you have problems/mathematical puzzles to submit to the column. The official submission blurb follows, and of course you will be credited in the Magazine.
The Playground features problems for students at the undergraduate and (challenging) high school levels. Problems or solutions (including more elegant or extended solutions to Carousel problems) should be submitted to MHproblems@maa.org or MHsolutions@maa.org, respectively. Paper submissions may be sent to Glen Whitney, ICERM, 121 South Main Street, Box E, 11th Floor, Providence, RI 02903 . Please include your name, email address, and school or institutional affiliation, and indicate if you are a student. If a problem has multiple parts, solutions for individual parts will be accepted. Unless otherwise stated, problems have been solved by their proposers.
One might think that having produced prototypes of the Gengzhi Goblets, our work is just about done to produce sufficient quantity (roughly 300 of each) to serve as G4G13 giveaways. The question comes down to materials and expense. If the Gengzhi Goblets are actually to be used as measuring cups, then they need to be made from a food-safe material.
Read More
By exploring the theory, the following shapes arose as a natural G4G13 giveaway: a regular 13-gon prism, a cup with octagonal cross sections whose octagon sides scaled with height as √(1-h³), and a cup with pentagonal cross sections with sides scaling as h3/2.
Read MoreCheck out this video of the the first two days of the Boxtahedral Tower installation at the Golden Gate STEM Fair:
At last the day came for the installation of the Boxtahedral Tower at the Golden Gate Stem Fair. Below is our materials list and a picture of them waiting to be set up.
Read More
In addition to the main, planned build at the Golden Gate STEM Fair, and thanks to donations of materials from Primed Minds, there was also a do-it-yourself/take-home table at the STEM Fair. Participants produced such towers as this one:
Read More
A brief post about the importance of prepping and prototyping for a build, and a couple of things that came up in the prep for the Golden Gate STEM Fair event. First, there’s just the sheer volume of supplies for such an event. Here are lots of beads getting outfitted with twist ties, for example.
Read More
Ok, all of the ingredients were in place to plan a large-scale construction for the Golden Gate STEM Fair: cubical units that can attach at edges and the theory linking them to the oct-tet lattice. I just needed to put it all together into a plan for something interesting and substantial that could be built out of lots of 6″ cubes (but not too many). Since height is a key factor in drawing attention, a nice round figure of 5 meters seemed like a good goal height for the structure. But what to build?
Read More
As a result of the last couple of constructions, when Studio Infinity signed up to do a large-scale construction at the Golden Gate STEM Fair, I had the oct-tet lattice on my mind. And for a long time, I had wanted to exploit the connection between cubes and the oct-tet lattice. I just needed a way to connect cubes edge-to-edge.
Read More