“A growing body of research shows us that outdoor play leads to better physical and mental health, has positive effects on cognitive function and learning, and reduces the incidence of behavioural problems.” Maria Zotti, Nature Play, SA.
Peter Dunstan, Principal Kilkenny PS, SA, writes in SAPPA magazine, Primary Focus, that outdoor play fosters “wonderment, independence and freedom” as well as “social skills, imagination, creativity and problem solving”.
Inspired by SAPPA and NaturePlay, Mathspig has produced her own outdoorsy maths list:
Who would have thought, mathspigs, that there was so much maths in hair.
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Today’s post looks at the Majestic Moustache or the Manly Mo and moustache graphs.
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Here are Mathspig’s two favourite moustache graphs.
First, is the Moustache and the Decline of the British-Empire or 100-Year Itch @ TWC, which includes a pictorial record of the moustaches decline.
The second graph is from the American Mustache Institute* showing the decline in corporate reputation with the decline in the popularity of the mo with PR professionals.
THESE ARE HILARIOUS GRAPHS, but they are Gaga or Made Up Graphs.
How does Mathspig know this?
Because of the numbers. The Y-axis scale is missing or irrelevant to the graphs shown.
These graphs are a bit of fun, but graphs are used to sell you products and some graphs can be totally misleading.
Mathspig, promised you Manly Mo Maths. And there is Maths in MOs.
Nick Cave’s Mo is a Parabola.
John Travolta’s Mo is also a parabola.
The Village People all parabola MOs.
Captain Jack Sparrow’s
beard is ∏ !!!!
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THIS IS A TOM SELLECK FRACTAL.
Goodness me, it’s a Tom Selleck Eyebrow Mo Sierpinski Gasket
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MAKE YOUR OWN MANLY MO:
Not all MOs are real and Groucho Marx trade mark eyebrows & mo were painted on.
Why not get your own Manly Mo.
Or, mathspig teachers, get your class to draw ‘parabolas’ on their hands and if a member of staff has a mo invite him into the maths class then on the count of three show him the whole class of ‘parabolas’
*If you love that moustache talk here is an American Mustache Institute Interview:
Mathspig was walking down a street in her home town, Melbourne, when she came across this Street Art piece on a wall of an auto-repair shop in Lygon St, Brunswick.
According to the fabNBC video, Mathletes, nine Figure Skating judges score competitors for the complexity of each element (eg. Triple axel or triple spin jump) and the quality of the performance producing a score out of ten.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir win GOLD at Pyeong Chang 2018
Kailani Craine, Australia
This is a typical figure skating score card for one competitor.
The final score, however, is based on the average for only 5 of these scores. Two are eliminated by random selection (Red Brackets). Then the top and bottom scores are removed and the remaining five scores averaged.
Screen grab NBC Mathletes
……………………………………………………
Now consider the IDENTICAL SCORE CARDS
of Skater A & B:
Skater A:
Four scores are removed. Two by the random selector (in brackets) and then the top and bottom scores (with line drawn through them)
7.00 + 7.00 + 7.00 + 6.75 + 7.00
……………………………………..
= 34.75/ 5 = 6.95
Skater B:
Four scores are removed. Two by the random selector (in brackets) and then the top and bottom scores (with line drawn through them). But this time the random selector eliminates two low scores.
The average:
7.00 + 7.25 + 7.00 + 7.00 + 7.00
……………………………………..
= 35.25/ 5 = 7.05
Same score cards but Skater B gets a higher average score than Skater A.
Skater A is, in fact, beaten by a random number selector!!!!
Often, students , who are struggling with a concept, find it even more challenging when changing grades and/or schools because a new teacher uses a different method to the one they were taught.
eg. Long Division must have the most ridiculous number of methods for doing it.
Add a multi-cultural classroom and even more confusion results.
Find the method that works for you. Stick with it and practice, practice, practice.
eg. Long Division
Here is the BEST EVER long division method
THE LEGO ARGUMENT:
It would be tragic IF Lego blocks only had one solution. That is IF 6 Lego blocks could only be arranged in one way. In fact, the number of possibilities of arranging 6 blocks is MIND EXPLODING!
Botanica Mathematica is a Mathematical knitting blog with patterns included run by Dr Julia Collins and Haggis the Sheep.
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The Mathematician’s Shirts! is a creative maths blog run by Julia Collins and Madeleine Shepherd. Yes! The same Julia Collins as above. It is a small collection of shirts but Big on imagination and this project is something middle school students could tackle using an old shirt. More on Flikrhere.
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The Division by Zero blog is very mathsy. Seriously mathsy. It is run by David Richeson, Professor of Mathematics at Dickinson College. Even though it involves tertiary level maths it is full of curiosities about maths such as this gem below:
I particularly loved the post about Gabriel’s Horn:
And pictures of Gabriel’s horn made out of paper cones. Gabriel’s horn is the surface obtained by revolving the curve y = 1/x for x> or = 1/2 about the -axis. Mathematics professors ‘wow’ introductory calculus students by sharing its paradoxical properties: it has finite volume, but infinite surface area. As they say, “you can fill it with paint, but you can’t paint it.”
The Golden Arches get a working over as well. Are they based on a parabola, Catenary (strung up chain hanging under it’s own weight) or other. It turns out it is other … the Golden Arches fit an ellipse.
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Visualising Mathis a terrific Tumblr feed run by Monica Anuforo and Casey M. both college maths students from Minnesota, USA. I think Monic’a comments on the blog tell us all how important it is to engage Middle School students.
Monica Anuforo: Hello! I’m an 19 year old Nigerian-American female. Obviously, I’m a fan of mathematics. I was one of those people who were lucky enough to find out that MATH IS AWESOME as early as middle school as opposed to later in life.
The Tumblr feed is a fabulous collection of mathematical images including fractals, gifs and jokes. Some of these images (See below) could be drawn, coloured or constructed by Middle School students so they too can discover that maths is awesome!!!
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Math for Loversis an anonymous Tumblr feed run by Kcmr. It is an eclectic collection of maths art, gifs and jokes. While it hasn’t been updated for awhile the images are still worth exploring. Here are just two:
Faig Ahmed is an internationally recognized artist from Baku, Azerbaijan, who represented Azerbaijan at the Venice Biennale in 2007. He is well known for his conceptual works that utilize traditional decorative craft and the visual language of carpets into contemporary sculptural works of art.
This is why geometry is important kids. It can blow your mind.
This is a brilliant clip of Klemens Torggler’s kinetic art door based on rotating squares. The special invention makes it possible to move the object sideways without the use of tracks.
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Math is Beautiful,a maths tumblr stream, is oldish and seriously mathsy but some of the stunning visual images and interesting gifs would intrigue Middle school students. e.g. The image below is a screen grab of a circle of dots that rolls around the circumference inside a bigger circle …. but … but .. but … the gif shows that the dots actually only move along the diameters marked. Fas-kin-ating!
Here is another screen shot (above) of a gif tagged ‘I cannot stop staring at this. Try it. Your mind will be taken over by a higher power.
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The Advanced GeometryTumblr stream is a stunning visual feast combining art, geometry and design. By art I mean … could be arty but naked bodies. But exploring the imagery is simply inspiring.
Susan Lombardo created the Math and Fiberblog for students in an upper division college geometry course. The beauty of this blog it gives step by step instructions on how to create a crocheted coral reef, adds the maths behind the project and many interesting links.
Also check outHyperbolic CrochetBlog of a Palestinian Maths teacher. Daina Taimina combines math education, knitting and crochet and her love of art in her book Crocheting Adventures with the Hyperbolic Planes. This blog also provides a fascinating looking at math taught in a different language and script!!!!!!
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The Virtual Math Museum links you to some of the most fabulous maths artists in the world including:
Brian Johnston and his Hydrogen Orbital (above)
and Luc Bernard and his Kuen’s Surface:
A Meditation on Euclid, Lobachevsky, and Quantum Fields.
