mathswaps

This week, I am featuring two versions of a very unique swap idea, both hosted by pahasiga:

Fun “Mathbox” for math lovers

and

Fun “Mathbox” for math haters

The idea for these two swaps came when pahasiga kept misspelling the word “matchbox” and thought it must be a sign to create a math swap. Math is all around us! Why not incorporate it into our swaps?!

The swap directions are pretty simple: 1) take a box, and 2) decorate it and fill with fun math. But what exactly is fun math? Here is a description from the swap…

_“There are things that you maybe have never thought to have a connection to math. A round button with stripes on it? – it is a circle with chords dividing it into segments – very mathematical! Beads that are all round (spheres) or long ones (cylinders), inchies (squares) and ATCs (rectangles)… Unsharpened pencils are prisms or cylinders, and when they are sharpened, then they are prisms or cylinders with a cone on one end. And I won’t even start on ribbons – I swear I have read about a way of building up all geometry from ribbons.</p>

Also, there are any kind of math-related jokes; funny, fake or just interesting math problems; math puzzles – logic problems, sudokus of all kinds, KenKen, Slither link, nonograms, light up, Hashiwokakero (bridges), Shikaku (rectangles), Nurikabe (Islands in the Stream), Dominosa, mazes, Kakuro, fill-in-crosswords, etc etc etc.

You can cut problems out of magazines or books, copy/remake from them (giving credit where due), or even create the jokes/problems/puzzles yourself. Don’t stuff your box with only one kind of things – let there be at least four kinds of fun math in the box, and let there be at least one math of a puzzle type – not only buttons and beads.”</i>

In the Math Lovers swap you can include difficult math problems in your box. In the Math Haters swap, only send the easiest of puzzles. Both swaps have a sign up deadline of this Sunday, September 19th. You must have over a 4.9 rating, with at least three ratings for package swaps, to sign up. Show your math love and swap some math fun!