Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from May, 2019

First Fractal: Dragon Curve

As my first week assignment, Dr. Schreck directed me to pick a fractal to study and write a brief recap of what I learned, and to find a 3D printable design of that fractal. I chose a design called the "dragon curve" or "Heighway dragon," and a vase created using that fractal that can be 3D printed. design credit: Scott Rodgers @scottyprogrammer on myminifactory.com https://www.myminifactory.com/users/Scottyprogrammer The Fractalfoundation.org  describes a fractal as "a never-ending pattern. Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. They are created by repeating a simple process over and over in an ongoing feedback loop." As such, fractals can be composed of very simple or very complex shapes, and explain more completely the surfaces of objects found in nature that don't fit easily into standard geometric shapes like cones, cylinders, cubes and spheres. Most spheres in nature aren't actuall...

Math 150: Geometry for Artists

Hello, my name is James Miller.  I'm a recent graduate of Saint Xavier University's Art & Design program. In this blog, I'll be detailing my journey through Math 150: Geometry for Artists taught by Dr. Kristen Schreck. Since Math 150 is in a dry-run stage, I will be keeping another blog detailing our progress at  sxu-gfa-summer2019.blogspot.com . Feel free to check it out! Background: I came to Saint Xavier as a non-traditional student in many ways. Not just because I decided to come back to school in my 30's, but because I had a really unconventional high school education. When my brothers were born, I left public school after 7th grade to take care of them while my parents worked, and while I was technically homeschooled, I did not study math in high school. My career has not been overly math reliant, and I've gotten by with calculators, computers and smartphones. But I have experienced many occasions that I wish it was something I had a better h...