fractalkitty

Lover of math, art, literature, and life.

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 […]

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

Math Birds

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, […]

coding

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).

coding

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 =

Comics

Hyperbolic Kittyoid

coding

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

coding

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

Math Birds

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

coding

Blue Flames

This code was generated by playing around with one of the p5.js examples. It translates and rotates using parametric equations each frame. Codepen is below (it may not run well on some machines). See the Pen blueFlame by Sophia (@fractalkitty) on CodePen.

coding

Transformed Magic Squares

I got a request from a twitter friend (Sara Resvi) to create a visual for transforming magic squares. A learner can see how one solution is many (or vice versa). Here is what I put together in an afternoon. Click the numbers to change them. Try to find solutions where the rows, columns and diagonals

coding

Parametric Waves Morphed into Unstable Charcoal

Have you ever wished that you had charcoal that is made of particles that randomly leave and come back? Wish the reference frame would rotate so down is up, but not always? Well now you have what you have always wanted – Unstable Charcoal! I created this after playing with a parametric wave visualiz

Comics

Coffee Darkness vs. Daylight

Because it’s true…

coding

Laced Reflections

My mind was on snowflakes tonight, which brought me down a rabbit hole of reflections, lace, and play. The code here is simple but fun. Enjoy making snowflakes, lace, stars, or whatever comes to mind. If you wish to fork the code or play it is here. My CodePen is below. Press the spacebar (or […]

Math Finds

Math Finds – Complex Analysis Resource

This is the first in a new category, Math Finds, on Fractal Kitty. I am a believer in growth-mindset and lifelong learning. Peoples’ willingness to share and educate allow for exposure to a plethora of topics and interests. This post is about a wonderful opensource book I found by Juan Carlos Ponce

Comics

Dark Mathemagics

I hope to have a full spell list for all Mathemagics eventually, but a quickly drafted comic will do for now – Enjoy.

Comics

Coffee Temperature

If you ever need a piecewise function, this is mine. I redid this from my 2x3in Mathober doodle (I added the overheated peak).

coding

Code of the Rings

While tinkering with my tree ring code, I created a simpler yet mesmerizing adaptation. Essentially I added a loop, some random multipliers, and changed to radian mode. Sine and cosine are so incredibly beautiful and full of infinite play and wonder. Please play with the code below by clicking to ch

coding

Goodbye Red Oak

I often run for mental downtime and stress-relief. On a recent run, I found one of my favorite trees blown over. This tree grew in a cemetery with broad branches and roots consuming the neighboring headstones. This red oak had brought me so much joy. Before I could get to the stump, the park had […]

coding

Foggy Orbits

After covering the unit circle today, I created Foggy Orbits as a quick sketch. Below is the CodePen and above is a GIF. I hope to add this to pre-calc activities with parametric equations eventually. See the Pen jOrJezv by Sophia (@fractalkitty) on CodePen.

coding

Swirled Series Challenge

I decided to join Craig S. Kaplan’s Swirled Series Challenge. I played the last two nights and have some draft GIFs below. I don’t have a ton of time, but it’s stuff like this that relaxes me at night. I look forward to seeing what people come up with. I still need to export a […]

coding

Draft of Knotty Math Tile Code

Here is a rough draft of Knotty Math tile code. Code was adapted from Shaw Wan’s tangram code on CodePen. I am hoping to adapt more tile designs for play. This will not work on touch screens/phones – I’ll have to contemplate an app for that. I am just learning… Drag the tiles below and […]

Miscellaneous - interviews, ideas, and more

Mathober Complete!

I enjoyed doing Mathober this year and plan to post a new set of prompts for next year. I always feel like I grow as a person with these short, yet focused, activities. Please join in next fall. Thanks to those that joined in on twitter. Special thanks to John Golden who did every day […]

coding

Mod Fibonacci

Finite Melodies for an Infinite Sequence A few years ago I asked myself how I could play the Fibonacci sequence on the piano. I found that if I divided the Fibonacci sequence by the number of keys I wished to play, I got a set of numbers that would infinitely repeat. I tested this observation […]

GIF

The Point? Dimensions

“The Point of Evolution” started as a Mathober doodle and led to this GIF. Dimensions are fun – what do you see? what do you notice? Side Note: I talk about dimensions when covering combining like terms. One analogy – A 3D banana can’t combine with a 2D banana (or whatever noun seems to go […]