Algebra Hanging Mobile Project

 

As seen in art museums and baby nurseries, hanging mobiles have a place in people’s imaginations: 

how could a disparate grouping of unequally weighted objects be suspended in such a harmonious and 

balanced state, gently turning to the whims of any air currents?  This question can be answered using 

algebra.  All the times students are solving for the unknown in an equation, they are also enacting the 

steps needed to construct a mobile, for in either case one is performing an act of “balancing”.  Whether 

gazing at celestial bodies hanging over an early morning horizon on the ocean (as did the artist 

Alexander Calder when he conceived of his new art form-the mobile) or looking at algebraic equations 

on a piece of paper, what one is conceiving is equilibrium.  To this end, algebra students in December 

created their own Calder-like hanging mobiles, using a “prestrung” hanging mobile kit with alligator clips 

to attach objects significant or pleasing to them.   The students aesthetically arranged their items to 

balance across the wires; below are photos of the results.

 

H. used a collection of shells collected from a family trip to the Hood Canal.

 

R. described activities and people that were personally important on pieces of paper