New-to-me Hobby

I can't say speedcubing is a new hobby because almost forty years ago there was a Rubik's cube contest at our neighborhood block party. My mom can solve it but I never learned.

At some point we ended up with this book, but I never read it.

I had been in a touch with a friend whose teenager is a speed cuber, which reminded me that I wanted to watch the documentary, Why We Cube | A Speedcubing Documentary.

We have at least two traditional cubes, which I used when I decided that
I was finally ready to put some time into the process of learning to solve it.

I followed along with this video and was amazed that it worked!

The traditional cube is slow and a bit difficult to manipulate. As a gift I received a speed cube, which is amazingly easy to spin. I don't think I will ever do it in under one minute, but my goal is to get under three.

Next up is reading Rubik's new book.

Paper Lecture

A former Harvey Mudd College math professor is honored with an annual lecture but I don't think I have ever gone before. This year's description caught my eye.

Title:  A World From a Sheet of Paper

Abstract:  Starting from just a sheet of paper, by folding, stacking, crumpling, sometimes tearing, we will explore a variety of phenomena, from a magic trick and geometry to elasticity and the traditional Japanese art of origami. Much of the show consists of table-top demos, which you can try later with friends and family.

So, take a sheet of paper . . .  

Professor Tokieda grew up as a painter in Japan and became a classical philologist in France before switching to mathematics.  Prior to joining Stanford this past fall, he had been a director of studies in mathematics at Cambridge for thirteen years.  Most of his research is in macroscopic physics and applied mathematics. He is active in outreach in the developing world, especially via the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences near Cape Town. 

I am so glad I went, especially since the speaker asked that the event not be recorded. You can see a toy-based lecture here, which will give you a feel for the paper talk.

I took a few notes, but mostly the lecture made me want to go home and try my hand at some of the things he showed us, especially a Miura fold. It was not as easy as it looks.

I made this once before and am tempted to try it again.

Just writing this blog post took a while because there are so many amazing papers, amazing pictures, and seemingly limitless beautiful creations to admire. Now I remember why I took a break. I'll use what I have and stop looking.

Entertaining myself during a cello lesson

Unfolded

Boxes made in the waiting room