Just a feeling
“Mom, I have the feeling I’m the Ramanujan or Paul of the 21st century”.
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.
The Paradox of the Mathematical Cone
Simon showed me an interesting paradox that’s difficult to wrap my mind around. If you slice a cone (at a random height), the section is a circle. The chopped-off part … Continue reading The Paradox of the Mathematical Cone
Our first MEL Chemistry set has arrived!
We have received our first MEL Chemistry box, something the kids were really impatient to start. And guess what, finally something to be proud of being a Russian from St.Petersburg … Continue reading Our first MEL Chemistry set has arrived!
The game of Loop
Simon has learned about a beautiful new game from Alex Bellos on Numberphile. The game is called Loop and resembles pool. The pictures below illustrate the layout on an elliptical … Continue reading The game of Loop
Rubik’s Cube Moves
Simon is getting faster and faster with the cube. Order a speed cube for his upcoming birthday? So much for “poor fine motor skills”.
Live Stream #18. Living Code, Chapter 6: Particle Systems. 99 Balls Game.
Simon says: “In this live session, I am continuing Chapter 6 of my “Living Code” Course. This is the 4th live stream that I’m attempting to do this”. It was … Continue reading Live Stream #18. Living Code, Chapter 6: Particle Systems. 99 Balls Game.
Ramanujan-converging
Today Simon learned that it was Euler who first came up with the idea that the infinite sum 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +… converges to -1/12. Simon … Continue reading Ramanujan-converging
Trinity Hall Prime Number
Simon saw this pattern in a Numberphile video featuring Tadashi Tokieda and recreated it in Excel, adding colours. There are 30 columns and 45 rows of digits in this picture, … Continue reading Trinity Hall Prime Number
Vectary.com
Simon has discovered a great new graphing tool: Vectary.com! “Finally I have found something topological,” Simon says. “There is a branch in math called topology. It’s about deforming things. I … Continue reading Vectary.com
Math on the Beach
Simon doing math everywhere. And he showed me this beautiful trick of two rows adding up to equal numbers and their squares adding up to equal numbers. And the two … Continue reading Math on the Beach
A Pythagorean triple
Proving a Pythagorean triple. 3Blue1Brown did it in another way, using i.
Summer Night Sky Watching
We are very grateful to brother Robert and his awesome colleagues from the Urania observatory for tonight’s adventure. We saw Jupiter and its four main moons, Saturn and Venus. And … Continue reading Summer Night Sky Watching
Geeks out of the box 