#48 Bring Variety

Bring Variety

Build chains of three or more function machines. You can make Rube Goldberg-style contraptions composed of many parts. Use toys and household objects. For example, tubes from paper towels or toilet paper are great for marble runs.

Play with computer picture-editing functions, such as rotation, skew, or gray-scale. Apply these functions to your child’s photo or a favorite character. Children will want to use many functions on the same picture – that is, to compose these functions!

Switch the order of two functions you compose. If the results are exactly the same, we say the two functions commute. It’s not easy to find functions that commute, because most do not. For example, what if you use the drier before the washer? What if you put on your pants before the underpants? Enjoy the many silly results of non-commutativity!