Dangerous Math: Death by Snake, Spider, Quad bike, Kangaroo, Raccoon and Vomit

It’s almost summer in Australia. In Melbourne we’ve had floods, mosquito – mozzie- numbers surge and, last Wednesday, I nearly stood on a Tiger Snake that was escaping the floods near the Yarra River! 

This post, however, is really a PR exercise for sharks. We fear them. We’re horrified by the thought of being eaten alive!!!. We only have to hear the soundtrack from JAWS to feel the fear. Then we see news footage like the attack below and think it happens all the time. Look at that fin. It’s enormous! But sharks are not THAT dangerous. We really need to look at the statistics to understand the level of threat. See below.

Why do we fear sharks? Look at the numbers. REALLY. Show your students. What about stairs??? Quad bikes? Chairs? Bees? That’s when you should feel the fear!!! We are irrational beings. This is why we need maths. We can make rational decisions using maths. There is also a safety message here. The maths speaks for itself. We won’t hammer it.

THE MATHS:

There is lots of maths you can do with these tables.

• Bar Graphs
• Pie Charts
• Ratios (What’s the ratio of death by Snake to Quad Bike?)
• Fractions (Show death by jet ski to falling down stairs as a fraction)
• Percentages
• Powers to the base 10. How many deaths occur in each country per 100,000 or 1 x 10⁵ head of population for, say, Quad bikes or ATVs? We can use these numbers to compare death rates and find out how dangerous riding a Quad bike is in each country.

……..Population Data 2022: 

……..Aust…26 million = 26 x 10⁶

……..USA…332 million = 332 x 10⁶

……..Canada…38 million = 38 x 10⁶

……..UK…67 million = 67 x 10⁶

But we’re doing this for the SHARKS!!!

1. Cyclists. 2. emergency lanes 3. fell off a chair 4.QUAD BIKES. 5. Horse, donkey. 6. buses 7. Cow, bull. 8. ice skates, skis or skateboards. 9. Venemous snake 10. kangaroo 11. bee 12. emu 13. Jet ski 14. Shark 15. Crocodile

1. Quad Bike or ATV: In 2007, 107 children younger than 16 were killed on ATVs. 2. Cyclists 3. choke on vomit  4. Cats, cows, horses, pigs, raccoons. 5. Bees, wasps  6.PWC or Jet Ski 7. Lightning 8. Xmas tree fires 9. Snowboard 10. Venomous Spider  11. Scorpions 12. Venomous Snakes , lizards. 13.Crocs & gators  14. Shark

1. ATV Quad Bike 2. Canoe  3. Kayak 4. PWC or Jet Ski  5. Unpowered inflatable 6. Avalanches or landslides. 7. Lightning 8. Toboggan 9. Moose –Car collision 10. Bears (All Nth America) 11. Rattle Snake 12. Wolves 13. Shark

1. falling down stairs.  2. Cyclists.  3. Choke on vomit   4. Falling off Chairs 5.  QUAD BIKE or ATV 6. Buses 7. Struck by cow, horse, other mammal 8. hornets, wasps, bees. 9. PWC or jet ski .10. Parachutists. 11. Skateboards, ice skates, skis 12. Canoe. 13. Shark 

Outdoor Math Adventures: Grade 3 – 5

It’s Autumn in UK & FALL in the USA so it’s the perfect time for a little bit of outdoor math for Grade 3-5 with AUTUMN leaves. Of course, you don’t need FALL LEAVES for this exercise, but it is colorful.

This fab idea comes from Juliet Robertson, an outdoor education consultant in Scotland. Her blog Creative star learning is one of the most inspiring outdoor maths blogs you will find.

Check out Mathpig’s protractor joke here.

Another fab idea from Juliet Robertson.

 

The Lego Olympics 2020

Toilet Paper FUN FACTS Maths

Mathspig is in Melbourne, Australia. We’re in Lockdown. AGAIN!

And toilet paper has disappeared off the supermarket shelves. AGAIN.

So today we are doing maths based entirely on toilet paper using information from the Toilet Paper Fun Facts website. Yes! It exists here.

Toilet Paper Fun Facts Website

Protractor Wind Speed Calculator

POP UP ANS Q 1 & 2 Yr 7&8 Toilet Paper fun facts

Traxxas XO-1 Website

Pythagoras Equation Diagram here

Here is the Sine Rule (Watch 1.5 mins)

Check sine curve here:

Listen to sine curve here:

King Kong Power Punch 2021 USA units

Metric version here.

Silverback Gorilla stats here

Human anatomy weight % here.

Speed info here

Impact times for boxers here

Power comparisons here.

Make A Maths FACE Mask

MATERIALS:  Sheet of paper (eg. A4), ruler, scissors & coloured felt pens.

I am using an Aranea Black Mask Design. We are going to design and make a MATHS MASK PATTERN. If you want to make one out of fabric you will find all the necessary instructions here.

ZOOM Math: 3D Animation …. USA units

Middle school students around the world have been learning maths via Zoom. ZOOM needs computers & WIFI. There are so many resources online but I cannot over-emphasise the amazing 3D skills developed just by playing with objects in TINKERCAD. (See logo above. More info below) Anyone who wants to work developing video games or animated films has to understand the logic and maths of 3D. Read on. And it is more challenging than you might think.

1. Storyboard Sketches

The Pixar film, Finding Dory, began as storyboard sketches. There were 103,000 drawn for the film. The sketches are placed side-by-side in sequence in order to convey scenes and deliver a rough sense of how the story unfolds.

How many 64-page Exercise books would the storyboard take?

Only one side of the page of the 64-page exercise book would be used for storyboarding.

No. exercise books = 102,000/32  =  3,187.5

If put into flip Book form the storyboard sketches would produce a ‘rough’ version of the film.

Superman Vs Goku

………………………………………..

2. Ratio

If you are making a film about, say, Godzilla, you want him to be big. VERY BIG. But he has to share a screen with human characters.

If Godzilla is too big all the humans look like ants.

If he is too small … he looks like a toy TRex.

The Monster Maths:

Height: 355ft  Godzilla’s towering height in the 2014 film—the tallest onscreen incarnation ever

Tail: 550ft 4in Total length of Godzilla’s spiked tail.

Volume: 90,000 tons Godzilla’s volume if filled with water

Teeth: 3.51 ft Length from the root to the tips of Godzilla’s canine teeth

Teeth: 60 Teeth in Godzilla’s mouth

Roar: 3 miles. Approximate distance Godzilla’s roar reverberates. (100,000W Power of the 12-foot-high, 18-foot-wide speaker array from which the sound designers blasted Godzilla’s roar to record the sound in a “real world” context)

Feet: 58ft  Total width of Godzilla’s feet across the widest point

Feet: 60ft  Length of Godzilla’s footprint from toe to heel

You vs Godzilla

The average height for 14-year-old boys in the U.S. is 64.5 inches or 5 feet 4½ inches.

For 14-year-old girls in the U.S. the average height is 62.5 inches or 5 feet 2½ inches.

Godzilla = 355ft

14 yo =  5’ 3”

Height:

355/5.25= 67.6 = 68

To make a 3D graph like this see below.

Footprint

You vs Godzilla’s Footprint

60/5.25 =  11.4

Teeth

You vs Godzilla’s Tooth

 3.5/5.25 = 0.7

………………………………………………

3. 3D Modeling: Polygon Count

3D modeling can be approached in several ways. There is a good explanation here.

One method is to use a 3D scanner to produce a 3D mesh.

Godzilla model under construction

Digital Godzilla as 3D mesh

The mesh consists of polygons. You’ll find everything you want to know about polygons here.

The greater the no. of polygons the better the resolution in a 3D mesh, the better the resolution of the character or object as more shading and texture variation can be added.

So the POLYGON COUNT or POLY COUNT is a measure of the quality of an image.

Here are some POLY COUNTS:

Godzilla

500,000 polygons.

It took the 4 CGI artists 6 months to fully nail the texture of Godzilla’s scales. (See above)

Elysium

Just the space station ran close to 3 trillion polygons.

Transformers 2

Devastator had 13 million polygons

Clash of the Titans

The Kraken had 7 million Polygons.

Avatar

Apart from some bluescreen shots of live-action actors in cockpits, it’s all CG: gunships, missiles, smoke trails, water, fire, an army of photorealistic virtual characters, and a giant tree made of 20 million polygons with 1.2 million leaves.

More here.

Lord of the Rings – The Two Towers (2002)

(See below)

The Gollum head model consisted of just over 2,600 polygons, which were mostly quads.

More here.

Film Animation vs Game Animation

The POLY COUNT is always greater in animated movies than in video games mainly because a higher poly count takes longer and costs more. A higher resolution is needed in a movie as it is shown on a much bigger screen.

Gollum: Game vs Film 3D model

Here are some POLY COUNTS for some popular games:

The Amazing Spiderman

Spiderman – 11,652

Assassin’s Creed 3

Benjamin Franklin – 17,744

Charles Lee – 25,994

Connor Kenway – 28,501

Desmond – 14,934

Haytham Kenya – 19,985

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Film Version

Batman: Game Model

Batman Beyond suit – 13,050

Harley Quinn – 17,731

Harley Quinn (DLC) – 19,110

Poison Ivy – 15,977

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Frank Woods (full gear) – 19,777

Crysis 2 (console)

Nano suit – 19,073

Multiplayer suit – 27,414

………………….

FREE 3D MODELING FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

TINKERCAD is the free online resource that allows students to create their own 3D graphs – like Godzilla vs You (above) or 3D images that can be used for 3D printing. Play with the program. Mathspig had a little play and produced the genetically challenged chicken (below).

Tinkercad Dashboard

Find here.

Drag and drop shapes.

More here.

Play with shape dimensions.

More here.

Create figures for 3D printer.

MATHSPIG REPORT CARD: More playing with program needed!!!

Outdoor Math Adventures: Grade 3 – 5

It’s Autumn in UK & FALL in the USA so it’s the perfect time for a little bit of outdoor math for Grade 3-5 with AUTUMN leaves. Of course, you don’t need FALL LEAVES for this exercise, but it is colorful.

This fab idea comes from Juliet Robertson, an outdoor education consultant in Scotland. Her blog Creative star learning is one of the most inspiring outdoor maths blogs you will find.

Check out Mathpig’s protractor joke here.

Another fab idea from Juliet Robertson.

 

The Simple Math of Cheap Ice Cream & Why It Melts So Fast

Discovery Magazine: Home Made Ice Cream

More ice cream science: the scoop baking

Stunning Art based on Maths

Adam R McCausland is a Belfast-based graphic designer whose stunning works incorporate maths themes.

Here is his work (below) titled Fibonacci / Poinsettia

This work (below) is titled: At theHeart of it all. I’ve never seen mirrored Fibonacci curve before. Fascinating. 

What fibonacci art can your class make today?

You can find more of Adam’s inspiring maths art works here.