A few days ago, the Venus-Earth interior conjunction inspired me to make this graph. It reminded me of playing with a Spirograph as a child, which led me to string art. Both worlds have merged into Spirograph string art kits!
Out of curiosity, I looked up string art and was amazed to learn about who invented it: Mary Boole! The Mary Boole.
Who is she, you ask? Boole was a mathematician married to another mathematician. She spoke at conferences and attended meetings for Charlotte Mason's PNEU schools. While her name never appeared in any of the six volumes, M. E. Boole wrote many articles on science and mathematics for The Parents' Review.
In case you are new to Charlotte Mason's ideas, I have two more reference points. Mary Boole's maiden name was Everest — as in Mt. Everest. Her uncle was Sir George Everest, the English surveyor who worked in Java and India, home to the tallest mountain in the world. Her husband was also named George — George Boole -- a genius in mathematical logic and probability. He developed what we call Boolean algebra, which is the logic that drives the device you're using to read this.
Out of curiosity, I looked up string art and was amazed to learn about who invented it: Mary Boole! The Mary Boole.
Who is she, you ask? Boole was a mathematician married to another mathematician. She spoke at conferences and attended meetings for Charlotte Mason's PNEU schools. While her name never appeared in any of the six volumes, M. E. Boole wrote many articles on science and mathematics for The Parents' Review.
In case you are new to Charlotte Mason's ideas, I have two more reference points. Mary Boole's maiden name was Everest — as in Mt. Everest. Her uncle was Sir George Everest, the English surveyor who worked in Java and India, home to the tallest mountain in the world. Her husband was also named George — George Boole -- a genius in mathematical logic and probability. He developed what we call Boolean algebra, which is the logic that drives the device you're using to read this.
Mary Boole blended math, art, and handwork into something called curve stitching. To explore her ideas, I found the following things lying around the house: cardboard, pins, yarn, and a nickel. A nickel is an easy way to mark spaces between the pins. I wrapped string around the pins to make this pattern.
Do you know what is amazing about this? I made a curve out of a series of straight lines. This arc is called a parabola, something you probably hated in Algebra II.
Do you know what is amazing about this? I made a curve out of a series of straight lines. This arc is called a parabola, something you probably hated in Algebra II.
Yesterday, I really wanted to be at my computer playing around with curve stitching. Instead, I was bored silly during a layover in Houston. I realized that my boarding pass could serve as a straight-edge — perfect in length for my captain idea log. I passed the time, doodling with my boarding pass while letting my Nook recharge for the final leg of the flight. I made several drawings before my eyes began to cross and I started to lose my train of thought.
Today I played with Grapher. You can find all kinds of resources online on how to teach it to yourself and even to young children. Since you might enjoy drawing this optical illusion, I made a PDF with numbered dots to guide you. Print out the file and grab a transparent ruler and a sharp pencil. Draw a line from the dot labeled 0 to the dot labeled 1. Move the ruler to draw a line from dot 2 to dot 3. Then draw a line between dots 4 and 5. Continue until you have drawn lines between all the pairs of dots. The PDF is below.
P.S. I made the file in a *ahem* spreadsheet!
P.S. I made the file in a *ahem* spreadsheet!
curvestitchinga.pdf |