Mirror Book Files Make all the regular polygons using just this “book” and a straight line on paper. You can also make stars and intricate symmetrical designs using objects or pictures drawn on paper. Simply laser etch the wooden and acrylic pieces, hinge the two wooden pieces together with Gaffer Tape, and glue the acrylic mirrors to the inside of your
…
Take and Make: Curve Stitching
Curve Stitching Files: SVG and Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator Mary Boole invented curve stitching to teach children how curves relate to straight lines. Make your own conic sections using these frames and string! Update 12/23/19 We shared these files with Stefanie Nguyen who runs as school makerspace at a school and the kids did wonderful creative things with them. Here’s
…
Take and Make: Packing Cubes
If you have a Makerspace and are looking for something fun to make, we have an idea for you. The packing cube is a really cool and interesting puzzle. You just need to etch the cardboard folds and fold into pyramids. It’s surprising how the pyramids can all fit inside the cube. It’s a good challenge to figure out how
…
Hot Science, Cool Talks
MathHappens had a blast tabling for the Hot Science Cool Talks event at UT Austin. As the talk related to space, we folded origami to show the mathematical origami techniques that engineers use in space technology!
A 119 Year Quest to Understand Tessellating, Convex, Irregular Pentagons
The idea for MathHappens to work with tessellating pentagons originated from intern Jason Gorst’s suggestions for future projects on his final report. A tessellation describes an arrangement of shapes that tiles a plane with no gaps or overlaps.The challenge of finding all possible tessellating pentagons was issued in 1900 by David Hilbert at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris
…