fractal

A collection of 47 posts

Math Birds

A blizzard

A collective noun for snowy owls is a blizzard. I doodled Koch snowflakes with a blizzard of these superb owls. They hunt day and night and are an utter delight to observe.

book

pdf – of time and cosmos

Here is a PDF of the Mathober Series – of time and cosmos So, I printed a book for Mathober2022, but it is insanely expensive. If you’d like to flip through this work of art, here is a pdf.

Math Birds

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 […]

acrylic

Ocean Transformation

This weekend, I reflected on the ocean through my paints. I think of waves, tides, days, seasons and life in iterative cycles. The sun, moon, breath, and wave come as the same and different. Every wave that I hear is a different wave and the same ocean. Life is beautiful. This is a 16x20x1 acrylic [

Math Birds

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.

coding

Mathober 2021

Prompts are at the bottom of this post and the information for Mathober is here. I used ink and code for this daily practice and really enjoyed seeing everyone’s posts on their blogs and twitter. Let’s plan for next year. Prompts will be generated in September of 2022. Ink: Day 1 – Multiplicity Day

Math Birds

Space-Pigeonholes Imagined

The Pigeonhole Principle merged with the contemplation of black holes today. I envisioned Fractal Kitty at the whiteboard with this one, but went without the kitty today – enjoy.

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 […]

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

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 […]

coding

Laser Pointer Googly Eyes

I am glad I can amuse myself. This is a simple script that I may integrate into an Algebra class for looking at points on a line. If you want a webpage version for students, click here. If you want code, see below. Click to make more eyes, and you might get freaked out if […]

coding

Fractal Ink to Code

After drawing the fractal prompt today for Mathober, I played around to make it in p5js. Below is the Codepen to play with. I almost feel like it should have a surprise when they align…maybe for another day. See the Pen fractal_Mathober by Sophia (@fractalkitty) on CodePen.

coding

Lune of Hippocrates Clock

After drawing the Lune of Hippocrates yesterday for Mathober, I played around to make a Lune clock today. Below is codepen (p5 is here). I use a lot of these small projects for students to play with in an hour of code group. This one may not be as popular as projecting memes and cats […]

Math Birds

The Magpi

GIF

From the Void

Hexagon and parametric spiral play. I find myself doodling with code lately more than with my pen. I have one more scripting algebra post, but feel like I have a much larger library for a pre-calc set of activities. Thoughts? The GIF is too large for this site or twitter, so I stashed it on […]

Scripting Algebra

SA9: Quadrant Play

This Scripting Algebra (SA) activity looks at quadrants, mouse location, and interactive art p5.js. This activity assumes that the skills from SA1-SA8 were introduced (if-else, logical operators, random(), text(), rect(), variables, loop, pow, for, functions, translate, modulo, etc.). This activity

GIF

Expanded

With commas: Without commas:

GIF

Foiled by a Foil

I couldn’t resist this GIF for my algebra students. Foiling can be such fun!

GIF

Moiré GIF: by Opal

My daughter started playing with moiré in procreate after I fiddled with it in a previous post. You know we breathe math in our home. She wanted to share:

GIF

Menger Sponge Cat in Space

High res: Low res:

Comics

No 5-second rule…

Scripting Algebra

SA8: Odd and Even

This Scripting Algebra (SA) activity uses even and odd polynomials to create generative art in p5.js. This activity assumes that the skills from SA1-SA7 were introduced (if-else, logical operators, random(), text(), rect(), variables, loop, pow, for, functions, translate etc.). This activity will in