bird watching

20
Apr
9 oystercatchers in a mandala packing pearls around an earth reflection in a larger pearl.

Microcosm Oystercatchers

Here is another bird in the series – Microcosm Oystercatchers. These are one of my favorite birds. I often see them in the black basalt cobbles on the coast with their fluorescent beaks. I had a hard time with where I wanted to go with this piece initially and went back to gaskets (something I […]
1 min read
16
Apr
Loon on water with lunes and area calculation

Pacific Lune

Another bird in the series! This one is a little luney. The lunes of Alhazen have the same area as the triangle. Note: Image was updated from the original post to fix an error
1 min read
10
Mar
owl flying with vorticies

Great Horned Owl

All of the great horned owls that have sat with me for hours of my life came to mind. I really struggled with what math piece I wanted to do here. I went with lift. I used multiple images, including my own in composing this. The vortices off the back of the owl are inspired […]
1 min read
25
Nov
a white pelican on a blue body of water at sunset with flocks of cantor dust and the cantor set elements throughout

American Peli-cantor

These birds utterly amaze me with their gigantic wings, synchronous motion, and high-up flight. They really are a joy to watch in flight, feeding, and landings.
1 min read
15
Nov
Evening Grosbeak navigating a prime constellation.

Evening Grosbeak

When contemplating a spirally constellation of twin primes, you may ask, “Just how many are there? – Infinite?” The Twin Prime Conjecture would say so.
11
Nov
a bird with 144 beaks in a thought cloud of a kitty with the words "kitty contemplates a new species."

Gross-Beak

I got side tracked when thinking about the next math bird in a series and thought “I’m long overdue for a kitty comic.” Dozen=12 and Gross=144
07
Nov
chickadee with a slope field and the derivate dy/dx = 2co(x/3) with the rollercoaster flight sketched

Chestnut-backed Chicka-dy/dx

Another Math bird in the series! These little chickadees make the cutest noise. They have had a brood every year in the neighbors gum tree. When I see their rollercoaster flight, I think of slope fields.
1 min read
16
Sep
pair of sand pipers on parallelepipeds with an ocean in the background and the matrix fro the volume.

Western Sand Parallelepiper

Another Math bird in the series! This one was inspired by my 17yr old discussing her math homework of deriving the volume for a parallelepiped. So of course It spawned the thought of parallelepiped sand castles.
1 min read
10
Sep
Spiraling Vaux’s Swifts

Spiraling Vaux’s Swifts

Just like solar eclipses, Vaux’s swifts really are a life experience. Watching them funnel into a chimney in a vortex of flitting feathers is just amazing. I had the wonderful experience of watching them funnel into the chimney at dusk in Salem, Oregon (my home). So here is the next math bird in the
1 min read
06
Sep
a birdhouse with violet green swallow head packed like a gasket and the math written on the house with parents flying

Packing Violet Green Swallows

I enjoyed watching the swallows this summer. I couldn’t help but imagine that they were packing circles in their little birdhouse portal. Life is full of such precious moments.
1 min read

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Sophia

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

Mathematics

Education

Creative Coding