Throughout my last week as Mathmusician-in-residence in Pfoho, I met with many wonderful people and we created shapes out of all sorts of cool supplies found at the dollar store. One of my favorite materials to use when making shapes are balloons. They are easy to manipulate and everyone has a good time. One of the sessions we made a truncated isosahedron. The rule is that at every point there are 5 balloons twisted together. The triangles were three balloons twisted around. The best part of the session was when it was complete and everyone could see mathematically why it turned out the way it did. With everyone's help we were able have a great week full of great math sculptures.
Math and Balloons
Click here to see the video Harvard Crimson made of me!