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Mathematics and Art - Where's the Connectionby Sharon Jeffus Einstein said, Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure When I read a quote like that, I have to smile. Math was always my nemisis in school. I skipped the 7th grade in school, and after that, I just seemed to shut math down in my academic career. Many times students who are very visual and kinesthetic do the same thing when math is taught in a workbook approach. I couldn't imagine anything more boring or worthless then my math. If you have a student who doesn't like math or seems to no understand it, then there is an alternate approach. The Curriculum called Math U See is one option. I have just written a supplemental math and art book with art activities that reinforce math skills. It helps to use lessons such as these along with the traditional math books. Helping students see the purpose in learning math is very important. Basic skills like telling time and cooking are filled with math problems. Yes, math can be and is very creative! There is only one right answer, but many times getting to that solution can be an artistic and creative endeavor. WHY IS MATHEMATICS IMPORTANT? The Swiss would say it even helped them win a race. In this note below are some of the highlights of Professor Arnold's May 2003 commencement address, titled "Doing the Math and Making an Impact", and given by him for the mathematics and statistics graduation at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Professor Arnold is the Director of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. The full text of this interesting and inspiring talk is online at “Well, Switzerland may not have a great sailing tradition (at least until now!) but it does have a very strong tradition in mathematics--Euler's picture appeared on a Swiss 10 franc note--and the Swiss team wisely brought this strength in math to bear on the America's Cup challenge. They enlisted a group of mathematicians specializing in mathematical modeling and numerical computation led by Professor Alfio Quarteroni at the national polytechnical university in Lausanne. The mathematicians used partial differential equations to model the flow of the sea around the hull, the dynamics of the air and the sails, and the turbulent interaction of the ocean, wind, and boat. They then applied advanced numerical algorithms to solve these equations on high performance computers. This allowed them to optimize such things as hull and keel design, sail geometry and placement, and so forth. Their work was essential to the design of the Alinghi (their ship), and so to the Swiss victory. " If you can sell children on the idea that math can even help them win a race, you can get them excited about learning math skills! Younger children learn basic shapes. Basic shapes are everywhere we look and important in learning drawing skills and fine motor development. We can see some of the history of the early Americans in their native geomentry at this website: Go to this website for great lesson on M.C. Escher's pictures and his use of math to produce them. Tessalations are very mathmatical. Go to this website for lessons on them. The internet is filled with creative art lessons that also combine math skills. Baking a cake can become very mathmatical when children double or even triple the recipe. The learn about fractions. Telling time becomes very mathmatical when you tell a child you will be back in 30 minutes. What time will that be? The picture below is done by the master Renaissance artist Raphael called "School of Athens." It is a mathmatical wonder. The formation of the groupings and use of perspective is profound. Go to this website: http://www.mcm.edu/academic/galileo/ars/arshtml/arch5.html and read about From ancient art to modern day fractals, math and art are seen in combination with each other. This picture has informal balance, both sides are equally as interesting, but not exactly the same. In the center of the painting, at its architecture's central vanishing point, are the two main subjects, Plato on the left and Aristotle stands on the right. Can you find the center vanishing point in this picture? Below, this picture is the one point perspective seen in the "Last Supper" by Michaelangelo. Go to this website to see the painting: Albect Durer's "Praying Hands" is an example of using math and art together. Notice how the picture is covered with one inch by one inch squares. Artists draw on a blank grid page and follow what they see in each square. This is similar to an artist raising his thumb to measure proportions in something he is trying to draw. It helps to use a blank sheet of paper and cover all but one row of squares at a time. Draw this picture on a blank grid and read about Durer's brother: http://www.moytura.com/reflections/prayinghands.htm Draw this picture again on large paper making each square double the dimensions. Each one should be two inches by two inches. Making something look animated is an example of a translation. When you translate an object, you will move it a specified number of spaces horizontally or vertically. In geometry translation basically means movement. You can do this very mathmatically by using your ruler on a flip book. Make a ball go across the page by drawing it on one side at the edge of the page and draw the same ball moving it 1/32 of an inch further on the page and so on each subsequent page until it goes all the way across the page. This might mean you do 30 drawings of the exact same ball moving a minute distance on each page until you reach the other side. Imagine how old animated cartoons were drawn frame by frame. Go to this website to see the animation of a ball: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation and read all about it. About Sharon Jeffus and Visual Manna: |
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