Welcome to this week’s Math Munch!
With Valentine’s Day this Thursday, let’s take a look at some mathy Valentine stuff. If you’re searching for the perfect card design for your valentine, search no more. Math Munch has you covered!
Above you can see a clever twist on the classic Sierpinski Triangle, which I found on xkcd, a wonderfully mathematical webcomic. You can read more about xkcd creator Randall Munroe in this interview from the Sept. 2012 issue of Math Horizons. (pdf version)
Ron Doerfler designed another math-insprired Valentine’s Day card, which you can check out here. The image to the left is only part of it. Don’t get it? Well it’s a reference to a mathematical curve called the cardioid (from the Greek word for “heart”). Look what happens if you follow a point on one circle as it rolls around another. You’ll have to imagine it tipped the other way so it’s oriented like a typical heart, but that curve is a cardioid. The second animation was created by the amazing and previously featured Matt Henderson. If you have a compass, then you can make the second one at home.
Really though, nothing says “I Love you” like a Möbius strip. Am I right? Here’s a quick little project you can do to make a pair of linked Möbius hearts. You can find directions here on a blog called 360, or you can watch the video below. Oh, and as if that wasn’t enough great stuff, here’s one more project from the 360 blog, a pop-up version of the Sierpinski Heart!
Happy Valentine’s Day, and bon appetit!
These are fabulous, thank you!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. Check back next week for more goodies. 😉
I *love* it (pun intended). I can’t wait for my students to begin their quarterly Math Munch project(s). Great stuff you guys are doing on here.
Portland, OR Math Teacher
Hey Thanks, Kayla!! I can’t wait either. 🙂
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Mobius strips are really cool. Its pretty neat that by creating a half twist before completing a loop you can create a object with one side and one edge. I love this idea of the chained Mobius hearts. I tried making it and the first few times I did it wrong but I finally was able to create it! It’s really awesome that how they twined together when completed.
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Mobius strips are quite interesting, the way he makes it is pretty cool. I learned that the Mobius strip hearts are a mathematical object, discovered about 450 years ago.
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