Hairstyle Patterns Help Students Brush Up on Skills
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
You know that you can have a mathematical equation in your head, but how about in your hair?
Raychel Hopkins, 10, never thought about braiding math into her hair, either. But here she is on a Sunday afternoon at the Baltimore Museum of Art using math concepts to design a braided hairstyle on a computer.
"Our math teacher doesn't teach us like this. I like this math," says the Baltimore fourth-grader.
Raychel is working on a computer program designed by Ron Eglash, who teaches science and technology studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Years ago, Eglash began studying patterns found in African architecture, art, fabric, clothing and even hairstyles.
A Focus on Fractals
The patterns are called fractals -- geometric designs that repeat in a pattern that gets smaller and smaller, sometimes to the point where you can't see it anymore, and sometimes into infinity (beyond where it can be counted).
You might have studied fractals at school or seen them in patterns. Maybe you've doodled some fractals: a big box, a slightly smaller box, an even smaller box, and more and more small boxes. . . .
"Fractal geometry is everywhere, even in lines drawn in the sand," Eglash says. "It's the cycle of life. . . . You see fractals in plants, in flowers. Within the human lung are branches within branches."
During a year spent in Africa, Eglash saw fractals everywhere, including in baskets, fences and artwork. Entire villages were built using fractals: The houses, shaped like cylinders, were in a spiral pattern, at the center of which was a tiny village, Eglash says, "and that is the ancestors' village."
"Mathematicians didn't invent infinity until 1877. So they thought it was impossible that Africans could be using fractal geometry," he says, when, in fact, "they were using infinity long before."
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
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