Big Stack Make Pretty
How it started: a kid admires a big pyramid of cannonballs. How it's going: mathematicians proving, via a Diophantine equation, which stacks are pretty, the cannonball problem.
Transcript
[HOW IT STARTED] [A kid beside a stack of cannonballs] "Big stack make pretty!" [HOW IT'S GOING] [Mathematicians at a board of equations: Σn² = M², N(N+1)(2N+1) = 6M², …] "The Diophantine equation suggests Big Stack = Pretty."
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/2022-04-05-big-stack-make-pretty/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)