Simon’s Plinko
Simon loved Daniel Shiffman’s simulation of the Plinko game and added some extra features to Daniel’s code, like a button to make new chips appear. He also saw a … Continue reading Simon’s Plinko
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.
Translating from Java to JavaScript. The Bubble Project
“Just recycling some building blocks here”, I heard Simon say Monday. This is a screenshot of Simon’s Bubble Project – an animation he built by translating a Java code from … Continue reading Translating from Java to JavaScript. The Bubble Project
Translating from JavaScript to Java (Continued)
Simon continued translating from JavaScript to Java as he followed Daniel Shiffman’s tutorial on creating a mirror based on the brightness values of the pixels from a live video feed. The … Continue reading Translating from JavaScript to Java (Continued)
Translating from JavaScript to Java (Simon wrote this post)
– Simon, where did you learn translating from JavaScript to Java? – From Dan, of course! I’ve compared the two formulas for converting from 2D to 1D. (The width stands for … Continue reading Translating from JavaScript to Java (Simon wrote this post)
Recent fascinations
Also among the interests of the past couple of days: the Breadth-first Search and the Depth-first Search: Both are algorithms for searching tree or graph data structures (think: mazes). The Breadth-first Search … Continue reading Recent fascinations
Pixel Sorting in Processing (Java)
Today Simon showed me what he learned about pixel sorting in Processing (Java) by doing this coding challenge by Daniel Shiffman. Using a “selection sort” algorithm, he sorted the pixels of a sunflower … Continue reading Pixel Sorting in Processing (Java)
Asteroids Coding Challenge
Simon has built this fun Atari game where a spaceship shoots at asteroids with laser and breaks them down into pieces. It was actually another coding challenge by Daniel Shiffman … Continue reading Asteroids Coding Challenge
Probabilities and Logarithms
What does Simon do when he is sick and free from having any lessons? Follow a course on probability theory and logarithms (which he watched four times), writing equations and … Continue reading Probabilities and Logarithms
Genetic Algorithm
“Mommy! Genetic algorithm is AI, ML and DL all at the same time! Scary information. It’s scary information for me,” Simon stares at me, a brand new Daniel Shiffman tutorial … Continue reading Genetic Algorithm
Simon’s next own code: Calculator
Since he wrote his first own code last week, Simon has attempted to write a couple more. This morning he came up with a code for a calculator in the … Continue reading Simon’s next own code: Calculator
Math > Back to Brilliant.org to train Trigonometry
Since Simon has been using so much trigonometry in his programming lately, we decided to review some SOH-CAH-TOA during his regular math classes and did some Brilliant.org quizzes: Simon also enjoyed … Continue reading Math > Back to Brilliant.org to train Trigonometry
Particle System in JavaScript
This particle system code Simon has written in Cloud9 originally comes from p5.js and makes a beautiful simulation of a waterfall:
Geeks out of the box 