Math with Bad DrawingsCartoon Archive

The Patricia Gasket

April 22, 2019

Asked to paint a fractal (a shape made of smaller copies of itself), Patricia paints a square: technically four smaller squares.

Use this cartoon

Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.

Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2019-04-22-the-patricia-gasket/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Transcript

Teacher: "A fractal is a shape made of smaller copies of itself. Try painting one, class!"

Teacher: "Good job everyone… well, almost everyone. Patricia, that's just a square." Patricia: "Exactly! Made of 4 smaller squares!"

Teacher: "Okay, so I forgot a caveat…" Patricia: "I call it 'the Patricia Gasket'!"

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Geometry › FractalsGeometry › Fractals › Sierpinski TriangleGeometry › Self-SimilarityMath Culture › Definitions
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