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From Kafka's insect to Conway's Grid A Mathematical Metamorphosis

This is a tutorial with a fun philosophical background story on how to use Conway's criteria to create a unique tile to tile the plane. I am demonstrating the criteria as well as the tiling I came up with, so viewers can use the example to create their own.

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4.17 Overall score*

105 Rank

12 Votes

6 Comments

Comments

2.2

The tiling example at the end was nice (especially loved the Bart Simpson tile), but all the stuff before that did not add to the content for me. I would prefer a super short video hyper focused on the math idea (or else more math content/tiling added in surrounding the main tiling idea)

Interesting STEAM connectivity. The video demonstrates the connection between the arts and mathematics. Kafka was probably thinking of these concepts when writing The Metamorphosis. You should include any stl file links for the Bart Simpson slash Bug tile for 3D printing.

3.5

It took 3 minutes to get to the math bit, the story was interesting but I would have clicked off if I was not a judge. I would recommend having a ten second introduction where you quickly clarify what the video is actually about, and make the story about 1 minute long. This would have given me more motivation to watch the video and give it a clearer structure. The start feels like it lacks empathy for viewers like me who dont know anything about Kafka. But you do also state that you assume the viewer is aware of these concepts, which makes it a little better. So the story was half the video and too detailed, that is my main gripe. However, the second half was amazing! I loved seeing the animation for the tile you made fade in, and the explanation of centrosymmetric. I felt like I learnt something and at the end of the day that is the most important bit. The Bart tile was a nice touch. In conclusion, it took far too long to get to the maths, but it was worth it! First half: bad, Second half: fab.

6.9

I really enjoyed the story and visuals. Very unique and memorable story. Also efficient, lightweight explanation of Conway's criteria. I'd say the weakest things are (1) tiling came from left-field almost half-way through the video, and (2) the more mathematically inclined audience would probably want a bit deeper dive into tiling criterias. (e.g. what tiles break Conway's criteria? Any other criteria?)

6.5

The introductory story was quite interesting, but after two and a half minutes I was wondering when the maths would finally start. I would try keeping the introduction shorter. The maths was really interesting and well presented.

3.4

Using the Metamorphosis for context is a great idea. But the intro is too long. Give the audience just enough to connect to the problem, then move on to the math. Also, I would have liked to see why the Conway criterion works. I can sort of put it together from the examples, but an explanation would go a long way.