Cut Stuff in Half Day 💕

For those of you who enjoy things like cutting möbius strips in half, I wanted to share this heart-themed math activity that is an annual favourite of mine.

Some of you may have seen the first variation before: start with a paper cut into a plus-sign and twist the opposite sides together with a twist each, or make two mobius strips and stick them together perpendicularly, then cut in half.

If you haven't, heres an video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2hqM8BgjK0

The way it was first described to me was not as a romantic gift but as a "love test": you demonstrate and give instructions, showing the resulting linked hearts. but when the other person tries to do it, likely the hearts fall apart instead of being linked, which represents bad luck in love. Then they have to figure out what went wrong and why the results are different.

But the mathematically inclined can go further! What would you have to do to get three linked hearts? What other things can you make and cut in half? What if there were three strips instead of two (starting with an asterisk-like shape), or different sorts of twists?

Another challenge: make the initial plus-sign shaped paper cross by folding the paper and making one straight cut.

I first hosted a "Cut Stuff in Half Day" when I was Mathemusician in Residence at Harvard, and here's an old blog post on how it went: https://web.archive.org/web/20120511071900/http://vihart.com/blog/cut-stuff-in-half-day/

In other news, busy week but the triple piano video and making-of are finally getting there. I'm breathing a sigh of relief as things fall together. I'm not used to working this slow but it sure is better for my mental health. 

In foot news, saw the specialist and though my xray still shows a wicked crack down the length of the bone he pronounced the bone as-healed-as-its-gonna-get and that my foot will be deformed forever, but he's optimistic I might get some movement back if I work at it. Looks like my toe-dancing glory days are behind me! Or maybe toe-dancing is the physical therapy I need? 

But I'm allowed to walk normally again, with the promise that at least I can't make it worse. I am VERY happy to be able to run around again, and Dogget is pretty thrilled too.

<3s to you all!

Vi