Monday, November 24, 2008

A Math Challenge!

My husband and I had a lot of fun Saturday afternoon researching different math concepts and ideas. I learned about quite a few different ideas including transidental mathamatics and the non-Newtonian nature of ketchup. My husband challenged me to create a quilt from this mathematical formula:


Actually I think it will be easier than it looks. The hardest part is finding the uninterupted time.

18 comments:

Ida from Central PA said...

Ooh-kaaaaay.

Its a Fourier series. (I think)


But, how do you quilt it?

Inquiring minds want to know.


- she who is married to a mechanical engineer (who has siblings who are Aero-astro and chemical engineers, parented by an English/History teacher and Electrical Engineer)

Bet you can't imagine the discussions we have over the holiday table!! ;)

Terry Grant said...

OK, now this really is Greek to me. I recognize the sigma and the phi but have no clue what one would do with this!

Nikki said...

Good job with the Fourier series. I never would have guess it on my own. I'm amazed at how many people who read or write on this blog are married to engineers or mathmaticians!

I agree with Terry that it is all Greek! My husbands math classes actually helped us quite a bit when we travelled to Greece for our honeymoon. He was able to dicypher the signs enough that we could compare the names with those in the guide book.

You will all just have to wait until December 1 to find out how to translate this Greek into a quilt.

Diane Perin said...

Well, as long as don't have to solve it or anything... using the squiggles as design elements seems doable. I can't wait to see what you do!

Taccolina said...

Baffling and intriguing to this art historian... I am looking forward to December to see the finished thing.

Unknown said...

Appliqued picture of an exploding brain?

Karen said...

Are you kidding me??? My mind hurts reading this! My piece has some basic college math problems on it, and I can't even figure them out.

Gerrie said...

Oh, I am feeling like such a cheese ball. My math piece is so simple. There is aclue in there! :}

Deborah Boschert said...

I'm married to an engineer too! Can't wait to see the results.

Nikki said...

I didn't solve the problem myself and Adam helped me come up with the imagery, so I didn't really have to explode my brain.

Kristin L said...

Darn, I really liked Helen's exploding brain idea!!

I Googled Fourier Series because I had NO idea what one was and Wikipedia (love Wikipedia) said it had to do with sines and cosines. Now I DO know that those are pretty, wavy lines, so now I can actually picture how you might tackle this problem. Woo hoo, I can't wait to see what you do!

Terri Stegmiller said...

Karen, my piece is even further at the opposite end of the scale than this one. Yes, that's a big hint on what I did.

Terry Grant said...

It is interesting how often artists are married to engineers and or mathmaticians. My Dad was a mechanical engineer, my Mom an artist. My husband's undergrad degree was math and he's a former math teacher.

Anonymous said...

My husband's undergraduate degree is in aeronautical engineering but he's spent so much time with lawyers throughout his professional life that everyone thinks he is a lawyer.

Gerrie said...

OK. I have the husband with a PhD in Nuclear physics. He also was and is a whiz at math. We balance each other quite well. The children are all artists, however.

Anonymous said...

Yep. My husband is an engineer, too. So is my brother. In fact everyone in our family seems to be either an engineer or an artist!

Terri Stegmiller said...

My dad was a train engineer, does that count?

Nikki said...

I bought my husband a train set for his first Father's Day (which was only months after graduating with his Engineering degree) because he decided to be an engineer when he was a kid -- he thought it would be fun to drive trains.