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A Stylish Way to Get Math in Your Head
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From Africa to Your Computer
Returning to the United States, Eglash wondered how he could teach what he had learned to African American children who didn't realize the role of math in their ancestry.
"There is a black mathematical heritage," he says. " . . . The attention to Ancient Egypt encourages the primitive view of sub-Saharan Africa. I wanted to show there are really sophisticated mathematical ideas that pre-date exposure to Europeans and are independent of Egyptians."
Eglash created computer software that teaches students about the mathematics used in making cornrows. "You can braid a mathematical idea into someone's hair and use the software to translate it into mathematics," he says.
Some Examples
· Suppose you have 10 plaits (complex braids). How many degrees must you rotate each one to make a circle?
Answer: 36 (there are 360 degrees in a circle, and 10 x 36 = 360).
· Suppose you have 36 plaits. By how many degrees must you rotate each one to make a circle?
Answer: 10 degrees.
As the kids work on these problems, Eglash reaches over the shoulder of Grace Hopkins, 8, pointing to the computer. "It probably needs to be smaller than 100 but bigger than 60," he advises. "Make the braid smaller. Twenty-two [degrees] is still too many. Click on the first plait and make the rotation a little less."
Grace does as he suggests, and the computer model suddenly gets a tighter cornrow hairstyle. And this complicated lesson in math has been transformed into something real.
-- DeNeen L. Brown
