Hexaflexing
Simon has been into making various hexaflexagons, inspired by the Vihart channel. It was tough at first, but later the same day he didn’t need any help anymore and flexed … Continue reading Hexaflexing
Author: Geeks out of the Box
This is a blog about Simon, a young mathematician and programmer, and his little sister Neva. We write this blog together, share their projects and thoughts on their journey towards self-dicovery. They’re growing up in a supportive non-coercive learning environment. We deeply believe in interest-based, self-paced education and have had to move countries to make this possible as a family.
Visit Simon’s website at https://simontiger.com/
We are a family from Amsterdam who moved to Antwerp because homeschooling is illegal in The Netherlands.
This blog started as https://antwerpenhomeschooling.wordpress.com in March 2016. Over the years, most of our entries have gravitated towards exploring together with Simon as he has developed an insatiable passion for programming, math and science. His sister Neva is treading on his heals. We changed or name to Geeks of the Box in May 2021.
Experimenting with electromagnetism
Here Simon tried to induce a magnetic field by allowing electric current to go through a conductor that is normally not magnetic (copper wire). The green stick is a magnet … Continue reading Experimenting with electromagnetism
Magic Prime Number Pencils
No matter how much you sharpen either one of these pencils, it will keep having a prime number written on it. Simon adorned them with the largest truncatable prime and … Continue reading Magic Prime Number Pencils
Some basic molecules
Above: “Mom, look, this is what we breathe in and this is what we breathe out!” Looking for a better organic chemistry set now, with plenty of carbon and hydrogen … Continue reading Some basic molecules
Some more memories from Friesland. Binary Calculator.
A couple more images from our trip to Friesland. Simon’s binary calculator: Doing math at a restaurant where we were celebrating his friend’s birthday:
Optical Illusions in Leeuwarden, Friesland
Simon loved the optical illusions scattered around the town.
The Leaning Tower of Lire
Also known as the Book-Stacking Problem. Simon had tried to build this tower at the Fries Museum where we visited a huge Escher exhibition (to the annoyance of the museum … Continue reading The Leaning Tower of Lire
Observing the Red Moon during the eclipse last Friday night
We were also lucky to have friends with a telescope over at Simon’s grandma’s summer house in Friesland last weekend and saw the Moon a little closer than as shown … Continue reading Observing the Red Moon during the eclipse last Friday night
Simon’s proof that every Fibonacci number is a sum of its neighbouring Lucas numbers divided by 5
This has probably been proven before, but Simon likes to come up with his own proof. Here he uses proof by induction, that is a proof that proves that some … Continue reading Simon’s proof that every Fibonacci number is a sum of its neighbouring Lucas numbers divided by 5
The Best Shape for Train Wheels
Simon explains why train wheels are actually shaped like truncated cones. Inspired by a Numberphile video about stable rollers. The wooden slopes for the experiment Simon designed himself and his … Continue reading The Best Shape for Train Wheels
2.5D and steam
Jaume Plensa, Love. Simon said it was a 2.5 dimensional sculpture. And such a shame we had no laser pen, to see the beam in the steam.
Geeks out of the box 