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Let’s start with some folding…

Fold the card into a cube

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Make some

Maths:

Hands-on

enrichment

Avril Steele

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Better and best solutions We are building some new towns and can put

new roads wherever we want.

What is the shortest total length of road needed

to connect the new towns together?

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• 3 towns

• equilateral triangle

• total road length = 3 miles

• 4 towns

• square

• total road length = 4 miles

Steiner problems

1 1

1

1 1

1

1

Can you find a better solution than mine for each?

What’s the minimum length necessary for each?

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Solutions

3

33

3

3

3

Total =

= 1.73…

3

3

3

Total =

= 2.73…

1 + 3

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BubblesSteiner problems can be demonstrated using soap

bubbles.

Demo

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Hexagons Make a hexagon out of 6 lolly sticks and

butterfly pins

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Materials What happens when you squash a solid object?

Poisson’s ratio

% increase in width

% decrease in height

Poisson’s ratio of cork

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Grid structures Make a honeycomb grid

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Auxetic grid Rearrange the grid to make it auxetic

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Auxetic grid

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and work with employers to enhance

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We also pioneer the development of innovative

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