When I first visited Finney Chapel at Oberlin College in Ohio, I was struck by the round window; it lacked the mirror symmetry typical of rose windows in Romanesque style buildings, of which Finney is one, and looked more like a geometry problem. Until I read more about its history, I thought it might be…
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What are the letters spelling “28 LIBERTY” made of Geometiles doing on a hot summer day in Lower Manhattan? The venue was 28 Liberty NYC, a space next to an iconic office building on 28 Liberty Street in the heart of New York’s Financial District. The event was the 7th Annual New York City Math…
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Every summer, I participate in math photo challenge on Twitter. This week’s prompt was “area”; we were specifically instructed to “look for shapes made from one or more simple polygons or circles”. I found a very rich example right by the water fountain in the lobby of the San Diego Museum of Art. I was…
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The world of tilings has recently had a breakthrough discovery: for the first time a single shape has been found that can cover the plane only in aperiodic patterns. That means that, unlike many patterns you see on wallpapers, buildings, or floors, the patterns created by these new tiles do NOT repeat themselves. This is…
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