Math Goggles #1 – Math-y Librarian
It’s time to put on the Math Goggles (not sure what these are? Head over here to find out). This week’s Math Goggles challenge is to visit a library. Once there, start looking around for math-y stuff. Once you find it, snap a picture of it. Keep the picture private or share it with us. Remember, there are no wrong answers here and anything goes.
I wasn’t going to do a library challenge for a few weeks except a friend told me about this awesome brand-new university library that was practically a walking distance from me. And they had a BookBot that could find any of the 1.8 million books and get it to you in under 5 minutes. How could I NOT go?!
The BookBot and the stacks were impressive, made me think of all sorts of math, including algorithms, estimations, and perspective. But what really made me excited were the arm-chairs! This library has a ton of seating options (speaking of estimations), from ottomans and benches to stools and arm-chairs. So check out my math finds (actually, my son found most of them and pointed them out; I was the one who put them in order and took pictures):
Ok, so this is a single square ottoman. And four of them are put together to form… another 2×2 square.
On another square ottoman the upholstery pattern was made up of 16 smaller squares and 9 buttons!
1×1 = 12 = 1
2×2 = 22 = 4
3×3 = 32 = 9
4×4 = 42 = 16
These are all square numbers! I was all set to go look for the next square number (25), but got distracted by this awesome chair. My excuse for lounging in it is it’s my 0x0 = 02 = 0.
And now it’s your turn to look for math at a library. Put on your Math Goggles and be a Math-y Librarian this week!
Posted in Grow
Awesome-sauce! The carpet design looks like different numbered poly-ominoes. Our library is much smaller but built around a beautiful glass dome, so there are couple circular grids tiled into the floor and a wide, 2-story spiral staircase around the open space.
Malke, I’d love to see the pictures of the glass dome and the spiral staircase at your library! If you post them on your blog, I’ll link to them from this post.