Daina Taimiņa facts for kids
Daina Taimiņa (born August 19, 1954) is a smart Latvian mathematician. She used to teach math at Cornell University. She is famous for inventing a cool way to show hyperbolic geometry using crocheted shapes.
Contents
Education and Early Career
Daina Taimiņa got all her schooling in Riga, Latvia. She finished her first university degree in 1977. Later, in 1990, she completed her advanced studies in Computer Science.
Back then, it was hard to get a doctorate in Latvia. So, she defended her thesis in Minsk. This is why her doctorate officially came from the Institute of Mathematics in Belarus.
After Latvia became independent in 1991, Taimiņa earned a higher doctorate in math from the University of Latvia. She taught there for 20 years. In 1996, Daina Taimiņa joined the Math Department at Cornell University in the United States.
She also combines her love for math and crocheting. She is part of a group called the Mathemalchemy Team. This team has 24 mathematicians and artists.
Crocheting Hyperbolic Shapes
In 1997, Taimiņa went to a geometry workshop at Cornell University. There, she saw a paper model of a hyperbolic plane. It was made by Professor David Henderson. The model was delicate, made from thin paper strips.
Taimiņa decided to make stronger models. She thought about how hyperbolic planes grow very fast, like an explosion. She realized she could use crocheting to show this. The very first night after seeing the paper model, she started trying out crochet patterns.
Making Models for Students
The next fall, Taimiņa was going to teach a geometry class at Cornell. She wanted to find the best way to explain these complex shapes. That summer, while her family was on a tree farm, she crocheted many models. She made a whole set for her classroom. These were the first hyperbolic planes ever made from yarn.
Her students loved the models. They said it was a great way to "feel" and understand hyperbolic geometry. This hands-on method helped them learn better. Taimiņa herself had wished for such models when she was learning. Her crocheted models are now a popular way to teach about hyperbolic space.
Sharing Her Ideas
Taimiņa gave a TedxRiga talk where she shared her story. She explained how needing a visual way to understand hyperbolic planes led her to invent these models. She also talked about how some people first thought crocheting was not serious enough for math.
William Thurston, who designed the original paper model, wrote about Taimiņa's book, Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes. He said her models were "deceptively interesting." He felt they helped people understand complex math in a hands-on way.
Taimiņa has led many workshops at Cornell University. She worked with Professor David Henderson, who later became her husband. They wrote three geometry textbooks together. Their most popular book is Experiencing Geometry: Euclidean and non-Euclidean with History. In 2020, Taimiņa made the 4th edition of this book available for free online.
Art and Public Interest
An article about Taimiņa's new idea appeared in New Scientist. The Institute For Figuring (IFF), a group in Los Angeles, saw it. They invited her to talk about hyperbolic space. Her talks sparked a lot of interest. People of all ages, from five years old and up, found her models fascinating.
At first, she made models just for math. But soon, she became known as a fiber artist. Her work was first shown as art in 2005. It was in an exhibition called "Not The Knitting You Know" in Washington, D.C.. Since then, her art has been in many shows around the world. Her work is also in famous collections. These include the Smithsonian Museum and the Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum.
Her work has been featured in many news stories. Discover magazine and The Times wrote about it. They explained how you can crochet a hyperbolic plane. You just add more stitches in each row. For example, add one extra stitch for every five stitches in the row before. This makes the material grow very fast and fold in interesting ways.
The Institute For Figuring later published a guide based on Taimiņa's work. It was called "A Field Guide to Hyperbolic Space." In 2005, the IFF used Taimiņa's ideas to help people learn math. They even had an exhibition about it.
Taimiņa's way of using crochet to explore hyperbolic space has been very popular. It has also helped fight math phobia (fear of math). Margaret Wertheim used Taimiņa's ideas in the famous Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project.
Books
Daina Taimiņa's book, "Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes", was published in 2009. It won the 2009 Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year. It also won the 2012 Euler Book Prize from the Mathematical Association of America.
Taimiņa also helped with David W. Henderson's book Differential Geometry: A Geometric Introduction. With Henderson, she wrote Experiencing Geometry: Euclidean and Non-Euclidean with History.
See also
In Spanish: Daina Taimina para niños
- Mathematics and fiber arts
