Tuesday, April 6, 2010

What do crochet and coral have in common?

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Geometry of course!

Although mathematicians claimed that hyperbolic space could not be seen or demonstrated, Margaret Wertheim shows us many examples of these beautiful shapes in nature as well as in crochet during her talk presented on TED tv.

Through math, marine biology, feminine handicraft, environmental activism and a crochet hook, Margaret Wertheim founder of the Institute of Figuring leads a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs. Margaret and her sister hope to draw attention to distressed coral reefs around the world that are rapidly dying  from changing ocean saline levels, overfishing, and many other threats.



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for putting this on your blog. I found it extremely interesting. Math and crochet go together so well that it almost seems silly not to think of math IN crochet now.

Anonymous said...

That's so cool that Gambit and Big Kitty look so much alike in the face! They both have those Tabby M's on their foreheads. LOL

passerby said...

have you seen this about the origins of all that stuff she talks about:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookprizes/7520047/Crocheting-Adventures-with-Hyperbolic-Planes-wins-oddest-book-title-award.html

MarieAnge said...

Passerby,

Definitely have seen it. I did some further exploring into the concept and had found the book. Forgot to mention it in my post. Thanks for the link!

It's a very interesting subject to be sure.