math | Occasional Observations of Traveling Technology Coach

Math-Kitecture Meets 3D Printing

09 Nov 2023 Leave a comment

by CharlesB in 3D Printing, 79M, math Tags: architecture, floor plan, Math-Kitecture

Math-Kitecture is about students drafting floor plans to learn about math and architecture. This classroom floor plan made it to a 3D print!

3D Shapes with 3D Printer

09 Aug 2023 Leave a comment

by CharlesB in 231K, 3D Printing, bubble wand, math Tags: hollow cube

The students made 3-dimensional wands – based on cubes — using the 3Doodler handheld printing pens.

Now we all know that cubes have six sides, each side being a square. To make a cube, you may think that we would need to make six squares, and use the plastic filament to attach the sides to each other at 90 degree angles. We learned a short cut that only used four squares! Can you figure out why it works? (Imagine a hollow cube).

When the students blew into the wands in one side, the air escaped from any of the five different sides, and the bubbles went off in all different directions! Also, the inside of the wand made very unusual bubble shapes!

Geoboard Art

11 Mar 2022 Leave a comment

by CharlesB in 36K, art, math Tags: geoboard, Mathigon

More art with geoboards.

Mathigon and Polypad Explorations

11 Mar 2022 Leave a comment

by CharlesB in 36K, computer lab, math Tags: Mathigon

My last period “guinea pig” class tested out a couple of “math as art” programs, using the polypad section on the mathigon.com website.

New unit of measurement

08 Sep 2020 2 Comments

by CharlesB in Covid 19, math, Useful Information Tags: covid, measurement

I just had a brilliant idea for a new unit of measurement: the “covid.” And how big is the covid? You guessed it, six feet long.

“Hey Bob, I just hit a jump shot from two covids away.”

“That is great Mary. Did I tell you my new livingroom is four covids in length?”

Ad nauseum.

1 covid = 6 feet

Metric conversion, 2020

05 Jun 2020 Leave a comment

by CharlesB in math, Useful Information Tags: kidney beans, metric

By this time, most conversions between metric units (grams, etc) and regular, i.e., American standard, units (ounces, etc) are pretty well established.

So how is it that Trader Joe’s and Urban Meadow’s brands have different conversions?

This can of TJ beans and this can of Urban Meadow Beans have the same serving size (130 grams) yet different cup amounts! TJ converts 130 grams into 3/4 cup, while UM converts 130 grams into 1/2 cup. That is a difference of 50%!

So which is correct? It is not so simple. According to this online-calculator.org, 130 grams equals .55 cups of water, which is very close to the 1/2 cup mark, but only .38 cups of honey and over a cup of flour.

And what about canned beans?

According the the USDA , 1/2 cup of kidney beans is only 117 grams (not 130)

And according to the Bush’s, the venerable baked beans company, 1/2 cup is 130 grams.

What do you think? Have you seen confusion when it comes to bean serving size conversion?

Mathigon

12 Feb 2020 Leave a comment

by CharlesB in FETC, math Tags: FETC, Mathigon

One of the pleasant surprises at FETC 2020 was passing by a “STEM Theater” area of the convention floor and seeing a presentation on Telling Stories in Math (or something like that) about to begin. I sat down and listened to a fellow with a slight German accent describe how their are many stories that can be told to keep mathematics interesting. He had a slide deck to accompany the talk.

Little did I know that it was by the Philipp Legner, founder of Mathigon, one of my most favorite online math textbook/resource. And Mathigon is just a side project of his (he works at Google).

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Best buddies!