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A collection of 155 posts

list of mathober prompts

Mathober 2023 Prompts

Mathober is just right around the corner, so I thought I’d post this year’s prompts early for those that like to plan ahead or incorporate any of this into a classroom. I look forward to seeing everyone’s creative expression of this year’s prompts. If you’ve never participated – join in! Here are so

a map made of montile islands or monotislands

Monotīslands

Using the “hat” monotile recently published, I put together over 20 coloring sheets that will hopefully inspire some to make their own maps with this shape. These sheets can be placed together as monotile islands – or Monotīslands. These may be fun to code with, use in classrooms, worldbuilding, sto

a mandala of jellyfish with overlapping tentacles

1/4 Update

I’ve been busy the last 3 months, so I thought I’d summarize the doodles and musings I’ve been working on that haven’t been posted (like my puffin, ducky, or quilt). A Cantor Set Poem Aperiodic Monotile Doodle This one is in vector drawing (svg) of the aperiodic monotile. Mandalas Puddle of Stars I

one large puffin amongs many small with the costal range in the background and a title and equations of probabilities

An Improbability of Crested Puffins

A collective noun for puffins is an improbability! I live in Oregon with these beautiful Tufted Puffins (also known as crested). It’s pretty probable that improbable things will happen – just look at the perfection of these little birds.

a woman walking into an enormous wave with cusp catastrophe curves on the corners

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.

A squirrel sketch with cute eye lies sprawled out belly down in the shadow of a tree.

Splooters gonna sploot…

Ancient Is

Below are a few of the images created with my “ancient is” code in p5js. I created a set is paired with haiku on Medium here and code is here (click to change).

Indigo bunting on grass with star trail arcs and celestial sphere diagram in the corner.

Indigo Bunting

Indigo buntings are majestically beautiful birds. I had a hard time deciding the direction to go in doodling this one, so I dug up a lot of fun facts: A group of indigo buntings is called a sacrifice, mural, or decoration. Their indigo color comes from the structure within their feathers rather than

9 oystercatchers in a mandala packing pearls around an earth reflection in a larger pearl.

Microcosm Oystercatchers

Here is another bird in the series – Microcosm Oystercatchers. These are one of my favorite birds. I often see them in the black basalt cobbles on the coast with their fluorescent beaks. I had a hard time with where I wanted to go with this piece initially and went back to gaskets (something I […]

Loon on water with lunes and area calculation

Pacific Lune

Another bird in the series! This one is a little luney. The lunes of Alhazen have the same area as the triangle. Note: Image was updated from the original post to fix an error

owl flying with vorticies

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 […]

a gif of 202 spinning around and pausing for a moment

The 202nd Carnival of Mathematics

First, I’d like to say that my heart goes out to Ukraine and I stand with you. Now for the 202nd Carnival… This is my second 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

hexagonal laser cut tiles arranged in an artistic display

Hexagon Play

I created this design to be in that present moment frame of mind and play with the beauty of hexagons. So many possibilities of artistic compositions exist. I am working on a p5.js generative art piece with this design as well and will post it once it is complete. Here are the SVG files. I […]

a painting with two kissing lunes made of smaller circles that are inside the larger done with a palette knife

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 [

Evening Grosbeak navigating a prime constellation.

Evening Grosbeak

When contemplating a spirally constellation of twin primes, you may ask, “Just how many are there? – Infinite?” The Twin Prime Conjecture would say so.

chickadee with a slope field and the derivate dy/dx = 2co(x/3) with the rollercoaster flight sketched

Chestnut-backed Chicka-dy/dx

Another Math bird in the series! These little chickadees make the cutest noise. They have had a brood every year in the neighbors gum tree. When I see their rollercoaster flight, I think of slope fields.

pair of sand pipers on parallelepipeds with an ocean in the background and the matrix fro the volume.

Western Sand Parallelepiper

Another Math bird in the series! This one was inspired by my 17yr old discussing her math homework of deriving the volume for a parallelepiped. So of course It spawned the thought of parallelepiped sand castles.

a list of mathober prompts

Get Ready for Mathober!

This year’s Mathober pieces will be posted here. Last year I posted prompts for the first year of Mathober when I wanted to do some daily doodles with no strings attached. The activity was a lot of fun. There were some some great pieces from John Golden and Foldster on Twitter. Prompts this year hav

Spiraling Vaux’s Swifts

Spiraling Vaux’s Swifts

Just like solar eclipses, Vaux’s swifts really are a life experience. Watching them funnel into a chimney in a vortex of flitting feathers is just amazing. I had the wonderful experience of watching them funnel into the chimney at dusk in Salem, Oregon (my home). So here is the next math bird in the

Diatom Sketch

I pondered diotoms in my spare time today and made this. I hope to play some more as time allows to expand this. Click to change images (randomized). A gallery is included below. Enjoy. A full page view is here. See the Pen diatom1 by Sophia (@fractalkitty) on CodePen.

a birdhouse with violet green swallow head packed like a gasket and the math written on the house with parents flying

Packing Violet Green Swallows

I enjoyed watching the swallows this summer. I couldn’t help but imagine that they were packing circles in their little birdhouse portal. Life is full of such precious moments.

A pileated woodpecker with morse code and the branches of letters with the waves shown in a forest

Pileated Woodpecker

Another math bird in the series. I am pretty convinced that pileated woodpeckers communicate in their own form of morse code. I wonder what their frequency is when they are excavating?

hexagonal tiles with kolam designs laid out with rotational symmetry

Playing with Kolam Tiles

I attended a wonderful math art workshop that went over the tradition and art form of Kolam. Siddhi Desai and Deepa Bharath had a wonderful presentation and activities to draw on dotted paper to create amazing designs. I look forward to playing with rice flour designs this weekend. One take away tha

a western tanager on oranges peeling them to make map projections in the background with drawing tools

Western Tanager

Another math bird in the series. I associate these tanagers with oranges, summer, and warmth. This year I enjoyed seeing them in our woods as I sat on a fallen white oak in the middle of a forest.

Code of the Rings Published in NCTM

Miscellaneous - interviews, ideas, and more

Code of the Rings Published in NCTM

This month the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) – For the Love of Mathematics featured Code of the Rings. A PDF of the article is below. To view it on NCTM’s website click here. I am grateful for this opportunity to share. After note: As I approach my 40th birthday, friends and fam