In abstract and computer generated art, a real object can be represented by a simplified set of lines. Can you create a picture using mathematical instructions?
Anamorphic art is used to create intriguing illusions - can you work out how it is done?
How can you represent the curvature of a cylinder on a flat piece of paper?
Use functions to create minimalist versions of works of art.
How many different colours of paint would be needed to paint these pictures by numbers?
What groups of transformations map a regular pentagon to itself?
How many different colours would be needed to colour these different patterns on a torus?
Several people thought that this problem clearly had no solution, although it did! Why not see how Steve tackled the problem to gain insights into the behaviour of functions and turning points?
Go to last month's problems to see more solutions.
Jennifer Piggott and Steve Hewson write about an area of teaching and learning mathematics that has been engaging their interest recently. As they explain, the word ‘trick’ can be applied to mathematical activity in many ways.
In this article, Rachel Melrose describes what happens when she mixed mathematics with art.
Proofs that there are only seven frieze patterns involve complicated group theory. The symmetries of a cylinder provide an easier approach.