Light, Math, & Color: 2014 Edition

For several years now I’ve taught a three-week course on making artglass windows. After learning the basic technique, I ask each student to research a math-related topic and illustrate it with an artglass window. This year’s group did exceptionally good work! The projects ranged from perennial favorites like the Pythagorean Theorem and tessellations to some new topics –  tesseracts, Borromean Rings, and Johnson’s Circle Theorem.

Pictures of their projects are below:

Jenkins: Properties of Parallel Lines and Transversals

Hulme: Parallel Planes

Howard: The Four-Color Theorem

Burkart: Exterior Angles of a Polygon

Horner: Circle Inscribed in a Triangle

Johnson: Angle Bisector Theorem

Nutter: Tesseract

Trabue: Johnson’s Circle Theorem

Lazenby: Sierpinski Triangle

Harrison: Exterior Angles in a Polygon

Lund: Congruent Angles Formed by Parallel Lines and a Transversal

McCarthy: Tessellation

Cobb: Fibonacci Numbers

Boyd: Co-Eutrignon Theorem

Bennett: The Golden Ratio

Compton: Sierpinski Triangle

Draughn: Circle Inscribed in a Triangle

Farrington: Pythagorean Theorem

Webber: Borromean Rings

Triplett: Midpoint of Hypotenuse Properties

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A Virtual Tour of Our Windows

I been making artglass windows for almost 20 years now, and I guess I’ve gotten so accustomed to seeing the ones in our home that I don’t really notice them any more. So I was surprised by the positive responses from my Facebook friends when I posted a picture of the windows I made for our den.

I spent some time today taking pictures of all the windows I’ve made and installed, and here they are in a slide show for everyone to enjoy. There are many hours of labor invested in these, and it was nice to see them again in a fresh light!

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Another Artglass Window

I designed and fabricated this window for a sidelight next to a front door. It is 5 ft. tall by 8 in. wide. The owners still wanted light in the foyer, but they also desired some privacy.

Circles, Self-Similarity, & Artglass – What’s the Connection?

Here’s an interesting pattern that is not truly self-similar, but close. Start with a circle:

 

Stage 0

Pack in four circles with diameters that are half the diameter of the original circle:

 

Stage 1

Repeat (you’ll notice that here is where the figure is not 100% self-similar: the Stage 1 circles do not have four circles packed into them – just two):

Stage 2

Here’s my interpretation of the pattern in stained-glass: