This is the second year for the Math Photo Challenge on twitter. Each week a new challenge topic is presented. During the challenge, you can follow @mathphoto16 on twitter to see the weekly prompt. You can also visit https://mathphoto16.wordpress.com/challenges/ to see the weekly prompt. Participants post photos on twitter and use the hashtag #mathphoto16 and the hashtag for the weekly prompt. This year, the challenge is being hosted and organized by Amie Albrecht (@nomad_penguin) and John Rowe (@MrJohnRowe) from Australia. Last year, I sat back and watched as people tweeted photos but this year I decided to participate and encouraging other teachers and students to do so as well. With this post, I'm going to recap the challenges and the photos I tweeted throughout the summer.
The Week #2 (June 19 - 25) challenge was #scale. Scale is a ratio that measures the relative size of two objects. We encounter scale in our daily lives such as longer/shorter, faster/slower and bigger/smaller. I posted two photos from the Halifax Stanfield International Airport baggage carousels. Each of the three baggage carousels in the domestic arrivals area has a scale model built by Anchor Models. The MacKay and Macdonald Bridge models are 47 ft long and have a scale of 1/60. The model of the Halifax Town Clock has a scale of 1/12. The Week #3 (June 26 - July 2) challenge was #lines, curves and spirals. I posted a photo of a pediment portico and eyebrow dormer from a house in the South End of Halifax. I really like this style of architecture and it is pretty common on the peninsula in Halifax. A few weeks later, I was at the Halifax Central Library and took a photo of the lines and shadows in the buildings central atrium. The Week #4 (July 3 - 9) challenge was #multiples. Many objects can be arranged in multiples and groups. This helps us count them more easily and share them out equally. I posted two photos for week 4. The first is an arrangement of tea cups from a tea house in Beijing. The second is a picture of the 3 chimneys from the Tufts Cove Generating Station on the Halifax Harbour. I like how each of the 500 ft tall smokestacks are partitioned into alternating white and red bands. The Week #5 (July 10 - 16) challenge was #zero. Without zero, mathematics would be nothing. Search out the concept of zero. Be creative in your interpretation. I posted a photo of the sign for Exit 0 on Nova Scotia Highway 102. While most Canadian provinces use kilometre based exit numbers, Nova Scotia uses sequential exit numbers. The only other Canadian province which uses sequential exit numbers is Newfoundland and Labrador. The Week #6 (July 17-23) challenge was #infinity. Infinity characterizes things that never end. Look for interpretations of infinity. This was a difficult concept to capture with a photo and there were relatively few photos submitted on Twitter. I posted two photos. The first depicted how the imagination is infinite. A toy such as a set of blocks can be used for an limitless number of different games and activities. The second photo I posted was from the television show The Big Bang Theory. In the episode titled "The Friendship Algorithm" (S2, E13), Sheldon gets stuck in an infinite loop in his algorithm. The Week #7 (July 24-30) challenge was #shapes. Shapes enclose the space around us into areas, in both regular and irregular ways. Along with single shapes, look for congruence, similarity, tessellations and more. I posted a photo that I took of the The Beijing National Aquatics Center. The bubble like geometric shapes covering the exterior of the building are based on the Weaire–Phelan structure. I really enjoyed participating in this photo project and seeing all of the interesting and creative photos that were posted by people from all around the world. It gave me a purpose to view my community through a mathematical lens and connect mathematical ideas to the world around me. EL
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