Small Streams


Nomograms
October 24, 2012, 3:51 pm
Filed under: education, math | Tags: , ,

Not unrelated to the Calcubot is the nomogram.

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Pittsburgh Mini Maker Faire
June 24, 2012, 8:53 am
Filed under: education, math, Uncategorized | Tags:

I will be applying to be an exhibit to Pittsburgh’s Mini Maker Faire. I hope you are, too. Here’s

a site that tells you how to make an interactive exhibit

20120624-141639.jpgMore evidence of my hackery, Calcubot Jr. I’m going to have to make measurements soon. Will have to go to school on Belsey’s Instructable.



Calcubot 0.1
June 16, 2012, 11:15 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

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Proof-of-Concept. #counting #calculating No measuring. Needs to be reinforced at bottom or a separate foot track needs to be built. You never forget your first bot.



Diddley Bow Pick-up
June 12, 2012, 6:59 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

Spotted at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh at a Kids and Creativity event. I’m going to have to make one of these. According to Christian at the electronics station, the pick-up is made with a magnet, a coil, and, as you can see here, a bottle cap.



Finger-Activated Switch
June 11, 2012, 8:19 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

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I used an NPN transistor, a resistor, and an LED for a circuit that’s completed with my own conductivity. #counting #calculating



Folding Paper
January 29, 2012, 8:45 pm
Filed under: art, math, research, technology, thinking | Tags:

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Just finished watching Between the Folds, a gem of a documentary about origami. Lots of stuff about the art and science, the emotion and technique, and the history and trajectory of paper folding.

The documentary ends with a profile of MIT Professor Erik Demaine, who linkage computer maker Xiaoji Chen calls the “happiest genius in the world.”

I can see how one enthusiasm leads to another for Demaine: math, paper folding, genetics, and glass blowing — well, I’m not sure how the glass blowing fits in . . . but Demaine says it’s all about having fun. Maybe fun will lead to a cure for cancer as Demaine and others figure out how and why proteins fold, or maybe to nano computers in space.

I guess I should fold some paper while I’m inspired, but I’m more interested in approximating logarithms with musical scales.



Slide Rules
January 21, 2012, 8:43 am
Filed under: education, math, thinking | Tags: ,

Went to hear Doug present on how to use a slide rule at HackPgh last night. 20120121-084355.jpg

I found out how to use the scales for finding squares, square roots, cubes and cubed roots. I also learned that with the bigger slide rules there is no end of exponentiation.

I’m most interested in slide rules with elliptical functions. Pictured is a specialty slide rule for doing duct work.




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