Jane Adler
I've been involved in both art and math for most of my life. And I'm
always making something: a program; a quilt; drawings; decorated
cookies. In my programming heyday, starting before the first PC, I
specialized in databases, user interfaces and 'real time' programming.
Now I'm busy with quilt guilds and teaching math as a volunteer. I
still try to find time to program, and it's still fun.
I live near New York City, and was thrilled to hear the National
Museum of Mathematics was opening there. This entry resulted from a
presentation hosted by the museum, which introduced me to Marjorie
Rice's work with pentagons.
At MoMath's February 2013 Math Encounters presentation, Doris
Schattschneider discussed a favorite pentagon of Marjorie Rice,
and invited the audience to make tessellations from this pentagon
for Marjorie's 90th birthday, later that week.
Once Doris mentioned the angles of the pentagon (90,120, 60,150,
and 120) I immediately realized they would fit perfectly on a
triangular grid, and sent in a tessellation the next morning. The
design of this quilt was inspired by this tessellation. In its
center is a 'whirligig' tile composed of three of Marjorie's
pentagons (three rotation symmetry of the primary cell on a 120
degree angle). This tile is then rotated six times on one of the
60 degree angles.
I've been making birthday quilts for over 20 years. Marjorie is
the first person I've made one for whom I've never met. I hope she
likes it!