Math + Making

A student blog for Math 189AH: Making Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College

Author: Mathus Leungpathomaram

  • Making Math(with)us

    Making Math(with)us

    Over the course of the semester, I made some various things! Project 3: Light show! We took in an audio file / live audio as input and created an LED light show! Above is a preview of the computed colors for each light, and below is the LED lights in action! Project 2: Modular origami…

  • Light show!!!!!

    Light show!!!!!

    In our final project of the semester, we decided to create an LED light show. We would take audio as input, perform some processing to determine the LED strip colors, then send the data to the LED strip to make the dynamic light show. Tools used include BlackHole for audio input, output, and routing, Python…

  • Modular Origami!

    Modular Origami!

    For this project, we decided on making some modular origami. At first, it was the terminology that drew me in – last semester, I took a number theory class where we worked closely with modular arithmetic. The modular in modular origami has a slightly different meaning – it refers to how the origami structures are…

  • Probabilistic Bracelet Making!

    Probabilistic Bracelet Making!

    For our project we represented different probability distributions using beaded jewelry. We wrote some code to generate bracelet layouts for us, so all we needed to do was to actually assemble the bracelets. We initially made a test bracelet together. We tied elastic string in a knot. We then decided to try making more sophisticated…

  • Surface Minimizing Bubbles and PenRose Tilings

    Surface Minimizing Bubbles and PenRose Tilings

    Surface Minimizing Bubbles🫧 Mathus taught me how to use soap bubbles to find the minimal surface area of a shape I create. I created these shapes using Zometools. Mathus gave me some guidance on what kind of shapes would be cool to make for this project, but left me with a lot of creativity. Mathus…

  • Surface Minimizing Bubbles

    Surface Minimizing Bubbles

    We used soap bubbles to find minimal surface area shapes. These surfaces, given a closed shape, will span the shape using the least area. Using Zometool to make various shapes, we made some fascinating surfaces. Making Shapes Zometool is a plastic construction set that is often used for making mathematical structures. It is simple to…

  • Preliminary ideas!

    Making Mathematics Blog