Jenny White

Z: that’s really hard bc the basketball is bigger than a ping pong ball but that doesn’t exactly make it less flat. So they are equally less flat than a fruit roll up. But that’s a pretty hard question!

A smattering of thoughts between lunch bites:

Z: 🏀 is less flat bc the cylinder is skinnier and there is like less distance between the round parts than a basketball.

Z: a basketball is all round parts and no flat parts

Z: you can squish a cylinder flatter than you can squish a basketball.

So in summary of her findings.

As a fruit roll up is rolled the second method (I call it the squished cylinder) and holds its shape when you let it go it is flat.

A kid in PJs rolling up a piece of printer paper from the short side.

A rolled tube of printer paper. My kid’s hand is gesturing “see! Not flat!” As she holds the tube to keep its shape.

My kid folding a piece of copy paper

The final fold of copy paper into a flat rectangle. She formed this by folding a rectangle over itself as the ran along the paper

Z, 9.75yo: hmmm. Well really it depends on how you roll it up. If it’s rolled into a cylinder shape then it’s not flat. Bc it’s round and doesn’t hold its shape. But if you like fold it up in more rectangles then it’s still flat.

Z: let me show you with a piece of paper so you know what I mean.

Today, the Republican leadership in the legislature failed the people of North Carolina.

In this representative democracy, the people choose their representatives - not the other way around.

They’d probably enjoy assembling this one! It has an IKEA-style assembly instruction booklet.

A stack of printed dragon mask template papers with an exact knife and a ruler a top a self-healing cutting mat

My kitchen table with an array of random dragon mask parts in various stages of assembly and my iPad with assembly instructions (ikea picture style) on it

My hand holding up the left side of the in progress mask build.

A few in-process photos:

Found a downloadable template on Esty, printed it off for a prototype build with computer paper and assembled. Realized it was too large for the kiddo. Took some measurements, printed off at 89% scale. Glued to cereal boxes, cut out, and assembled again.

The calming cardboard folding and taping moment I needed in this *gestures to the world*

The kiddo wanted a dragon mask to add to her Halloween costume this year. I found a template and started assembling.

Some fun mathematical thinking went into this build.

New episode!

NCTM is next week and if you pay me a cool $20 I'll get those slides nice and fixed up for you

I mean, if I were the giant conferences presenting type, I’d take you up on this.

Just for the comment threads alone it’s worth $30

Projective transformations?
Affine transformations?

If you'd like to watch two amazing people build some cool graphs in Desmos and learn a thing or two (probably more) along the way. Here ya go.

I feel seen.

I stand by Bonafide masks. I think they still have free Covid tests with orders on top of a 25% off sale.

Also, for any lil’s in your life, they have kids masks that my 9yo likes the fit and color of.

bonafidemasks.com

Yeah that’s a lil on the late side for current numbers, but better than nothing ❤️.

Work sponsored flu clinics are usually late September/early October and I suspect they just added COVID to the plan rather than moving the plan.

Hope all is well and the school year is going smoothly my friend.

A n95 masked Selfie in front of the CVS logo at my local pharmacy’s shot area. I’m smiling with my eyes and happy about science and governors who sign legislation to open up shot access for more people.

I’m not on here much these days.

But it felt like a good time to pop in and say: it’s double poke season y’all. Flu +Covid 💉💉

You can schedule your shots now in a lot of states. They didn’t ask about pre-existing conditions (tho I do have them).

In and out in under 10 mins.

COVID vaccine update: Pharmacies in these states won't give you a shot unless you have a prescription.

CVS: CO, FL, GA, KY, LA , ME, NY, NC, PA, UT, VA, WV, DC

Walgreens: AZ, CO, GA, IN, LA, MO, MT, NM, NY, OR, SC, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI

CVS is not yet offering COVID shots at all in MA, NV, and MN.

Watching them unfold and refold is very satisfying. Here was my first attempt at the RH-Y-6.2 fold, filmed by my kiddo.

ALT: The bloom folds into a compact prism so that the edges of the hexagon have stacks of paper and the center is open. Then you can gently pull the sides to open.

A bloom class of origami fold. It’s a hexagon in the center with radially symmetric rhombuses. It folds flat into a cute lil compact cylinder.

A bloom class of origami fold. It’s an octagon in the center with radially symmetric rhombuses and a few trapezoids. It folds flat into a cute lil compact cylinder.

A bloom class of origami fold. It’s a 12-sided regular polygon in the center with radially symmetric long and narrow hexagons. It folds flat into a cute lil compact cylinder.

I had some time today to download and try my hand at a few of the Bloom class of origami folds.

They were a lot of fun, data set with select crease patterns available here scholarsarchive.byu.edu/data/85/

(YT video of the researchers who found them: youtu.be/YMV43l1nnoM?...)

Just let out a "OooOOooOOOoooo" while on a work call when I saw this.

Opens new tab, returns to work. Will read later

Kolam Tiles | Talking Math With Your Kids Sixty-four wooden tiles of six different types that combine for endless beautiful creations.

Kolam tiles are back! At the old price for a limited time!

talkingmathwithkids.com/shop/kolam-t...

The kiddo (9yo) asked over breakfast “is 2 degrees a lot of a little” and we talked about temperature scale and angle measurements.

She decided 2 degree angle & 2°F are small bc “you can see/tell the difference btwn 80 and 82” but 2°C is BIG. (We didn’t discuss kelvins)

LFG. Get louder, folks. School funding is so overwhelmingly supported that it might just be the issue that helps Senators and Representatives finally find their, um, courage.

What Annie said.

Call your reps. Did it on my way to get the kiddo from summer camp today.

Money being withheld by federal administration for:

North Carolina: $185.8 million
My county: $5.8 million

+1 to Necessary Conditions. It was the most formative read of my time as an educator. I re-read it and my notes every summer for several summers and got something new each time.

I said the same thing 😂

My husband, ever the engineer, said “close enough” 🫠

Note to self. Dive into this and play with the math next week

That is so cool.

My brain is fried, but I will come back to this later