Fractal Kitty (Page 5)

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hexagonal tiles with kolam designs laid out with rotational symmetry

Playing with Kolam Tiles

I attended a wonderful math art workshop that went over the tradition and art form of Kolam. Siddhi Desai and Deepa Bharath had a wonderful presentation and activities to draw on dotted paper to create amazing designs. I look forward to playing with rice flour designs this weekend. One take away tha

a western tanager on oranges peeling them to make map projections in the background with drawing tools

Western Tanager

Another math bird in the series. I associate these tanagers with oranges, summer, and warmth. This year I enjoyed seeing them in our woods as I sat on a fallen white oak in the middle of a forest.

Code of the Rings Published in NCTM

Miscellaneous - interviews, ideas, and more

Code of the Rings Published in NCTM

This month the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) – For the Love of Mathematics featured Code of the Rings. A PDF of the article is below. To view it on NCTM’s website click here. I am grateful for this opportunity to share. After note: As I approach my 40th birthday, friends and fam

Cardinality Cardinal

Cardinality Cardinal

Another math bird in the series. This one I struggled with what to do and include, feel free to send any comments my way. I am still contemplating if it is really done. I miss hearing cardinal calls from when I lived in the east and watching them out on my grandpa’s farm with their […]

Manifold of Me (a self portrait)

Miscellaneous - interviews, ideas, and more

Manifold of Me (a self portrait)

If you want some notes/insight, here are some drafted below. Skip them if this piece speaks to you – you may find your own meaning and you don’t need mine.

Coded Optical Illusions

Coded Optical Illusions

I had a great time this summer doing art and professional development with Twitter peers. On one of the days, Ellen Thomson hosted activities with Optical Illusions. This got me thinking of all the ways this could be done with coding + math groups. There are two approaches I take in coding groups. T

Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher

The Belted Kingfisher catches Fish Curves on a King Graph. (This image was updated with a fix after the initial post) Sources: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/KingGraph.html [https://mathworld.wolfram.com/KingGraph.html], https://mathworld.wolfram.com/FishCurve.html [https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Fish

Playing with patterns

Miscellaneous - interviews, ideas, and more

Playing with patterns

I have been enjoying summer communities in math learning. Howie Hua has been hosting a wonderful group on Wednesdays, and last week Shelby Strong with Stronger Math shared Fawn Nguyen’s Visual Patterns resource and I had to play with creating some randomly generated patterns (below). These patterns

A spotted towhee sits on a wooden tau with vines growing on it and a few branches and a son that looks like the unit circle w

Spotted Tau-hee

Happy Tau Day! I have created another math bird piece for today with the inspiration of Spotted Towhees on my morning walk.

Space-Pigeonholes Imagined

Space-Pigeonholes Imagined

The Pigeonhole Principle merged with the contemplation of black holes today. I envisioned Fractal Kitty at the whiteboard with this one, but went without the kitty today – enjoy.

“Two-Body” Problem: Barycenter vs Waxwing

“Two-Body” Problem: Barycenter vs Waxwing

After watching the neighborhood waxwings consume their fill of berries prior to moving on, I pondered a different kind of a two-body problem:

Overdue May Update

Miscellaneous - interviews, ideas, and more

Overdue May Update

Well, I am overdue for a post. This year was busy. I taught 11-13 classes per week on top of study halls and homeschooling 3 kiddos. I have found my creative energy slightly depleted. That being said, I got a lot done in May and hope to reset in June. 101 days of code complete! […]

In a Loop

Sometimes you just feel like you are in a loop…

i-bis

i-bis (white faced ibis) on the complex plane.

A blue heron at night with the moon large and behind. The heron is facing left and not extended and only shoulder up visible.

Heron’s Formula

Maybe we should start naming all math formulas and theorems after birds. This one wouldn’t have to change under this new renaming… I do love being able to find an area of a triangle given the lengths of its sides. Heron’s formula information: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/HeronsFormula.html [https:/

Cantor Set Zine

Zines and Coloring

Cantor Set Zine

This is Fractal Kitty’s first zine! I was inspired by the public math website. Some wonderful zines from @becky_k_warren and @Ayliean are on there. After cutting the Cantor Set with Kirigami to investigate fraction operations, exponents, and patterns this week with my middle school groups I thought

February Highlights

Miscellaneous - interviews, ideas, and more

February Highlights

Coding: On January 31st, I started 101 days of creative coding. After a few setbacks (11 days with no power), I am on track. Please check out 101 days of creative coding on a computer to fully engage with the interactive days. I didn’t want to spam everyone with a daily blog post, but there […]

The 191st Carnival of Mathematics

Miscellaneous - interviews, ideas, and more

The 191st Carnival of Mathematics

This is my first time hosting the Aperiodical Carnival of Mathematics. The Carnival is a round of math blogging that shares various articles, posts, videos, and more. Last month was hosted by Sophie the Mathmo and next month will be hosted by Eddies Math and Calculator Blog. I love the tradition of

Probability in the Leaves

Probability in the Leaves

I run and see the crows daily. They splash, play, talk, and announce the sunset. I see them in yards flipping leaves together and can’t help but feel that they are calculating probabilities. Of what, I am not sure – maybe the probability of finding a nut, bug, or piece of pizza. No matter what, […]

Folding Origami

Folding Origami

Need a pun? This is an origami I-koi-sahedron. This code is from Day 0 to kick off my 101 Days of Creative Code. I will post GIFs to the blog as they are created, but the coding will be done as pages rather than posts ( I didn’t want to spam my followers).

Locomotive Rose Art

Locomotive Rose Art

The equations used to produce these plots are in the family of rose curves. This particular form is composed of two curves added together. It almost feels like there is some locomotion happening in the visualization, and it is fun to think about the gears and shafts might that make this pattern. r =

Hyperbolic Kittyoid

Hyperbolic Kittyoid

Parabolic Beams

Parabolic Beams

I love thinking of parabolas as being formed with a directrix and focus. Coming from a background in trajectory analysis, I find the abstract relationships of the curve to the point and line beautiful. When a light shines through the focus of a parabolic mirror, the light reflected is orthogonal to

Code for Two-Button Calculator

Code for Two-Button Calculator

A two-button calculator can only perform two operations (like multiply by two and add five). The Global Math Project is a wonderful resource for math learning and play and has a great resource for two-button problems in this Global Math Project PDF. Another variation of this sort of problem is done

Gold-Phi-nch

This was inspired by my backyard Gold-phi-nches (goldfinches) that cluster on my sunflowers, brighten my days, and provide hours of entertainment. As someone who has been isolated pre-covid, I am so grateful for the joy that birds bring me. I imagine the flocks propagating sunflowers far and wide to

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Sophia

Mathematics educator and creative coder exploring the beauty of mathematical concepts through interactive visualizations and playful learning.

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Creative Coding