It’s Friday – and for many Martin Luther King Jr. Day this coming Monday means a day home from school. Potentially, there’s a three day weekend ahead which means it’s a perfect time to catch up on some math and fun – luckily, you’re in the right place. First, make sure you’ve read last week’s Fun Math Friday post on Lego, Angry Birds, and even some great math songs.
All caught up? Perfect, let’s start this weeks post off with a link to something quite useful – a website dedicated to those who use math in their careers. We Use Math is a great way to quiet those pesky “but when will I use this?” complaints. This site is full of information and unexpected finds, reminding us that it’s not only mathematicians using math on a daily basis.
If you are lucky enough to be in the City of Light in the near future make sure you check out the exhibition “Mathematics: A Beautiful Elsewhere.” Hervé Chandès, General Director of the Foundation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, writes that the show “is a geometric, algebraic, artistic and cinematographic mosaic that gives everyone a chance to experience fragments of mathematical beauty.” For those of us not in Paris this winter, we’ll have to just rely on the website which, thankfully, gives us plenty to contemplate.
View of the exhibition Mathematics: A Beautiful Elsewhere Photo © Olivier Ouadah
Now let’s take a look at this past week’s Math Monday post from Make. George Hart begins the post by posing this question: “How can you slice a bagel into thirteen pieces with just three simultaneous planar cuts? This is a classic problem of recreational mathematics, made famous by Martin Gardner.” Figured it out yet? Personally, my bagel closely resembles that of croutons … ok I give up! Thankfully, there are a number of photos to go along with the solution and now you know how to cut a bagel into 13 pieces using just three cuts!
Finally, I’ll leave you with some exercises that show you how we here at Math-Whizz make geometry fun and exciting for our students – be sure to check out just a few of our interactive lessons right here.
About the Author: Rita Rogers grew up in the PNW and despite her “low-tech” houseboat upbringing, went on to complete her Master’s of Communication in Digital Media at the University of Washington in 2010. She is passionate about the convergence of education and technology, educational gaming, and outer space.
