It’s high time I gave a bit of press to Vi Hart’s Blog. If you haven’t checked it out, do so right away. It’s brilliant.  A number of people have pointed me to her blog, including one of my Calc students. Her little math videos are fresh, funny, and insightful. Denise, at Let’s Play Math, gave her some press too, which is what reminded me to finally make this post. Here’s the video Denise highlighted (the most recent of Vi’s creations):

This is particularly appropriate because there were a couple of us in our math department discussing this very question: In total, how many gifts are given during the 12 Days of Christmas song? It’s a nice problem, perfect for a Precalculus student. Or any student. Here’s a super nice explanation of how to calculate this total, posted at squareCircleZ. But before you go clicking that link, take out a piece of scrap paper and a pencil and figure it out yourself!

Here’s another nice video from Vi Hart:

You could spend a lot of time on her site. Here’s another awesome video. I’ll have to have my Precalculus class watch this one when we do our unit on sequences and series.

And you’ve got to love the regular polyhedra made with Smarties ,  right?

Plus, Vi Hart plays StarCraft, which is awesome too.  Back in the day, I really loved playing. I haven’t played in a while, and I certainly haven’t tried SC 2 yet, because then I’d never grade my students’ papers.

Bottom line is, you need to check out all the playful stuff Vi Hart is doing at her blog. Happy Wednesday everyone!