Parabolas are special
At the bakery, Simon tells me: “Parabola is the only shape that’s both an ellipse and a hyperbola (at least in a projective plane, which means that you can have … Continue reading Parabolas are special
Category: Geometry Joys
A Knot Theory Puzzle
Simon has shown us a curious puzzle: if you hang a poster on a string using two pins, what is the way to arrange the string so that the poster … Continue reading A Knot Theory Puzzle
More examples of Simon’s chat contributions on math and coding
Simon is always extremely active in the discussions about the current projects made by/ lectures given by NYU’s Asdociate Professor Daniel Shiffman during his live sessions on the Coding Train … Continue reading More examples of Simon’s chat contributions on math and coding
Vladimir Krasnoukhov at MathsJam Antwerp!
When we arrived at the MathsJam last Tuesday, we heard a couple of people speak Russian. One of them turned out to be a well known Russian puzzle inventor Vladimir … Continue reading Vladimir Krasnoukhov at MathsJam Antwerp!
Experimenting with random walks in Wolfram Mathematica
Simon’s code is published online at: https://www.wolframcloud.com/objects/monajune0/Published/Random_walk_distribution.nbhttps://www.wolframcloud.com/objects/monajune0/Published/Random_walk_distribution2D.nb “If I take many random walks and see what the endpoints of those random walks are, what I’ll find is a Gaussian distribution!” … Continue reading Experimenting with random walks in Wolfram Mathematica
Dijkstra’s pathfinding algorithm
“I have first built a maze, then I turned it into a graph and applied Dijkstra’s pathfinding algorithm!” Simon learned this from the Computerphile channel. He later also attempted to … Continue reading Dijkstra’s pathfinding algorithm
Graham Scan Algorithm
“Connect some points into a convex polygon such that all of the remaining points are inside that convex polygon. The algorithm that will find it for me is called the … Continue reading Graham Scan Algorithm
Shaky Polyhedra
Simon has been studying various polyhedra and programming them in Wolfram Mathematica. He asked me to help him build one of the many “shaky polyhedra” from paper. The main characteristic … Continue reading Shaky Polyhedra
Physics Experiments: Making Holes in Soap Membrane
This demo is inspired by a recent video on Steve Mould’s channel. It’s about creating a movable hole in soap film with a loop of cotton thread (the photo shows … Continue reading Physics Experiments: Making Holes in Soap Membrane
Happy Pi Day 2019!
Just like last year, Pi Day activities are going to spill over to the next few days, I’m sure. Simon’s not yet done working on a Pi piano composition and … Continue reading Happy Pi Day 2019!
Simon working on a book about Knot Theory
These are just a couple of pages from Simon’s new book/ digital presentation on knot theory that he’s currently working on: I see him scavenging the internet in search of … Continue reading Simon working on a book about Knot Theory
Shapes of constant width
Simon made these Reuleaux triangle from red cardboard. They are formed from the intersection of three circular disks, each having its center on the boundary of the other two. Its boundary … Continue reading Shapes of constant width
Geeks out of the box 