Spotting mathematics out and about in the real world!
In the previous post we saw how we could project polyhedra into the plane, and use some simple properties about planar graphs to classify all the possible Platonic solids. In this post we’ll finally get to the buckyball, by considering a less restrictive class of polyhedra: the fullerenes. The Platonic solids were extremely regular: every …
Continue reading ‘What is a buckyball? Part 3: Fullerenes’ »
Earlier this year I was involved with the construction of the `Giant 4D Buckyball‘, as part of the University of Edinburgh’s Innovative Learning Week. The sculpture was actually of something rather more complicated – the Cantitruncated 600-cell – but buckyballs (in various representations) were a fundamental building block. So, what exactly are they? Julia’s description …
Continue reading ‘What is a Buckyball? Part 1: Planar Graphs’ »
Mathematical tourism in Bristol: the chaotic pendulum.
I’ve recently returned from my second ‘Young Researchers in Mathematics’ event in Cambridge, a city I never tire of visiting. At over eight hundred years old, Cambridge University has more history than some countries, so there are plenty of mathematical connections to be found as a result- I thought I’d share just a few of …
Sometimes you don’t have to go far to find travel inspiration and a change of scenery. In my search of the world for sites of mathematical significance, it turned out I’d been overlooking one practically on my doorstep! The Union Canal, near Falkirk In 1822 the Union Canal opened, providing (with the Forth and Clyde …
In search of the quarternions.