I was recently inspired to build a very fun object/maths sculpture known as a "Hexastix". This strange object is a curious assembly of 72 pencils held together with only 8 rubber bands! Hexastix are easy to make, and lots of fun to put together. Plus, all the supplies I needed for it were found on the high street for under £5 in total!
My Hexastix inspiration was provided by this excellent YouTube video made by Matt Parker (A.K.A. StandUp Maths), in which he constructs his own Hexastix. A detailed Hexastix guide is conveniently available online, courtesy of Dr Alejandro Erickson. Alejandro and Matt explain the mathematical curiosities and joys of the Hexastix far better than I can, so I'd recommend taking a look at their pages.
I tweeted photos of my Hexastix build as I went along, so I thought I would embed the tweets in this blog so that myself (and hopefully others) can find them. If you think this looks like fun, then I'd strongly encourage you to grab some pencils (watch out for the pointy ends!) and give it a go!
Here is the final product sitting on my desk.
76 pencils earlier.... here we go!