Posts

Blog Response #14: Assignment 3 Written Piece

  What is Kolam? Kolam is a form of traditional decorative art that is drawn using rice flour. It originated in Tamil Nadu, a province in the Southern part of India. Kolam is also known as R angoli in the Northern part of India. Kolam is a geometrical artwork composed of straight lines, curves and loops drawn on or around a grid pattern of dots. The South Indian Kolam is all about symmetry, precision and complexity, while the North Indian counterpart, Rangoli is mostly about colour and flamboyance .   Kolam is a 5000-year-old tradition usually done by the women of the household, where they would wake up early in the morning, sweep the front of their house , sprinkle some water and draw Kolam. The artists woul d use their three fingers (thumb, index and middle finger) to draw kolam, those who did it well free hand were professionals.   There were some religious purposes to Kolam. Used for charity, following Hindu scriptures, where other living organisms such as ants ...

Blog Response #13: Models and Maps from the Marshal Islands

  I am so impressed by the concept of stick charts and why and how it came to existence . The Marshal Islands consist of many atolls and islands over a large area, so for the  people to maintain links between all these islands, they depended on sea travel. Navigational knowledge was important for the people , and f rom this need , to ensure that travelling was made easier , they studied the movement of the waves and represented these studies using their stick charts like the Mattang. It i s amazing how a need translated to a means, and how this means was made into a workpiece that reflect ideas in math such as geo metry .        When we ask the question on why embodied mathematics is significant in the history of mathema tics, one idea I can think of is maybe it is one way how ancient cultures discovered their own mathematical ideas. A great example is from this reading, whe re the Marshal Islanders felt the direction the swells were taking the...