Previously we shared a Take and Make blog on Koch Fractals. We have another fractal shape for you called the Sierpinski triangle! It has the overall structure of an equilateral triangle. This would be a good challenge for someone learning to use geometry software whether its design like Corel Draw or math like Geogebra. We are using midpoints and we
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Austin Nature and Science Center Fall Fest Star Party
One person can make a real difference by bringing math into a family event at the Nature Center. Emmie Chng was working solo with an enthusiastic gathering of families. They learned how to make a plumbline, how to use a quadrant, how to make one at home and why we look to the north star to find latitude. Here’s the
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HEB Free Sunday at the Texas State History Museum – November 3
We had a special treat for HEB Sunday! Caroline Ainslie of Bubbly Math was on hand to make a geodesic dome from balloons. We had a great team for the day including Michelle Tat, Lauren Siegel, Marybeth Barnstone, Millie Barnstone, Emmie Chng, Josephine Sheng, Caroline Ainslie, Samantha Trevino and Nina Hunt~ Samantha, Emmie, Josephine, Nina and some guest MH staffers
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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
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Advice from the MOXI Museum on Golden Ratio Exhibit
Comments from the MOXI Museum in Santa Barbara. They liked the Golden Ratio Calipers and decided to make their own and set up a self guided exhibit. They’ve got some great advice for any museum interested in doing this too. “I have in fact used your files in a crude way and brought out some ratio calipers in my museum’s
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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!
Educator Night at The Thinkery
MathHappens Interns Josephine Sheng and Viyang Shah had the opportunity to try out an activity on Freese’s Dissections at The Thinkery’s Educator Night on October 17th, 2019. They had a great time interacting with educators in the Austin area and demonstrate to them how math can be approachable and fun. Some even said they’d leave their personalized puzzles at their
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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
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MathHappens @ Austin Museum Day – Pioneer Farms
Stick Stock (Surveyors in Texas before Annexation to the U.S.), ca. 1845, oil on canvas, 14in. x 17 in. framed, Lent by Larry Sheerin, L.2012.2.3 MathHappens is sharing ways that a mathematical device, the survey Chain measurement system invented by Edmund Gunter in the 1600s impacted Texas history as we transitioned- only sort of — from the Mexican Vara
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