Math Goes Pop! » costumes

Math + Halloween, Part 4

Matt — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:40:50 +0000

It’s that time of year again. If you are looking for some math-themed costume ideas, then look no further. Though it gets harder to keep this tradition with each passing year, here are a few ideas is you’re looking to rock that mathematical look at whatever event you are planning to attend during this frightful Halloween season. Ideas from previous years can be found here, here, and here.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

1. Tony Stark

Yes, yes, I know – since Iron Man hit the screens in the summer of 2008, the titular character has become a popular costume idea, joining the ranks of comic book icons like Superman and Spiderman. I’m not talking about dressing up as Iron Man, though. Instead, I am recommending a costume based on the man inside the suit – Tony Stark, playboy billionaire and (more importantly) mathematical wünderkind. All you really need is some delicately coiffed facial hair and a glowing circle on your chest. Aside from that, the world is really your oyster. You could go as classy Tony stark, for example:Or, if you’re looking for a more rugged look, you could try prisoner of war Tony Stark:

As with many things in life, the only limit is really your imagination.

2. Rubik’s Cube

I know, this bears a striking similarity to Rubik’s cube head from one of my earlier posts – but this one is even better, because not only does it drape over your body, it also explicitly states you are a Rubik’s cube, for those guests at the event you attend who have been living in a cave for the past thirty years.

RetroCRUSH has the costume on a list of the worst Halloween costumes of all time, an honor with which I must respectfully disagree. I will concede, though, that if you are looking to score some ladies (or fellas), this may not be your best option.

While we’re on the subject, though, I’d like to send a quick shout out to Parks and Recreation for featuring Rubik’s Cube Head as a costume in their recent Halloween episode. Here’s a picture of that fantastic party attendee standing next to Rob Lowe, who is sporting a less exciting Sherlock Holmes costume.

Rob Lowe next to Rubik's Cube Head

3. Human Calculator

This one requires some work, but the payoff may be worth it. First, one must decide what type of calculator to become. Then one must decide on the size – should it be a full body costume, or centered only on the torso, for example? No matter what path you choose, however, the most important thing is getting the details right. Nobody likes a costume made by an inferior craftsman (or craftswoman, for that matter).

Here is an example of a calculator costume gone right. Note the pride this individual takes in his work. No doubt he secured many digits on Halloween.

Click to go to the source link.

No matter what you ultimately decide, I hope your Halloween is a good one. See you next year!

Math Goes Trick Or Treating Yet Again

Matt — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:00:28 +0000

Another year, another night of dressing in costumes on a quest for candy and/or debauchery. In previous years, I’ve tried to encourage mathematically influenced Halloween costumes (see here and here), and so if for no other reason than the sake of consistency, this year will be no different. Here are some new ideas for 2010:

1. The Count

This costume idea was suggested to me in the comments section of last year’s list. Known and loved by children and adults alike, this costume would give the wearer ample opportunity to teach children about the wonders of math. If you’re one of those people who give out pennies or toothbrushes, though, I would caution you against this costume decision, since the combination of a lack of candy and an insistence on discussing mathematics may dramatically increase the likelihood of you being at the receiving end of a “trick.”

This dude can totally count to 1.

Then again, one way to strike fear into the hearts of children while simultaneously dressing up as your favorite mathematically-themed Sesame Street character would be to purchase the amazingly creepy Count costume pictured below. If you feel like your children watch too much Sesame Street (and if you have $1500 to spare), I would especially encourage you to pick up this costume, since after seeing it, I’m sure they will be traumatized for at least a significant portion of their remaining childhood.

If you count incorrectly, this dude will totally exsanguinate you.

2. Professor Moriarty

Given the success of last year’s film Sherlock Holmes, and the promise that his nemesis Professor Moriarty will play a prominent role in the upcoming sequel, this year seems like a good time to beat the rush of eventual Moriarty impersonators and do the costume yourself, before the film dictates how the man should look.

It’s not clear to what extent the next film will play up Moriarty’s mathematical talents, but according to the source material, those talents are substantial. Moriarty first appeared in “The Final Problem,” in which he was described by Holmes as follows: “He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty. At the age of twenty-one he wrote A Treatise on the Binomial Theorem, which has had a European vogue. On the strength of it he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him.” One could feasibly portray Moriarty at any stage of his development – the youthful mathematician with a bright future, or the elderly criminal mastermind who has used his powers in mathematics for evil. As long as the costume fits the period, this one is open for some interpretation (at least, for now).

3. Möbius Stripper.

This pun on the familiar Möbius strip may be appropriate if you are one of those people who believe that Halloween is an excuse for you to dress like a draggle-tail. For women who share this belief, there are many options at your disposal – here is one garment that may help set you on your way:

Of course, dressing like you’re undressing isn’t limited to females. The man below, for example, knows that men are just as free to show their goodies as women.

The real Leeloo's got nothing on this guy.

If you are a fan of Möbius strips, but not a fan of dressing provocatively, I would encourage you to not give up hope. Certainly there must still be a way to incorporate this object into your costume (you may have to lose the wordplay, however). Here is a charming Möbius strip scarflet, for example, that could perhaps be one component of a larger, geometrically influenced piece.

4. Abacus face

Artist Nick Cave has inadvertently created what I think may be the best costume of this group, especially if you will be spending the evening with your avant-garde friends for whom traditional costumes are a bore. If you haven’t heard of Nick Cave, here is a snipped from the article that features the proposed Abacus face costume: “Nick transforms found objects into what he calls ‘Soundsuits.’ These suits are not just sculptural works but meant to be worn. Imagine wearing one of these to the next costume party you attend? Performers inside the suits emit noises, hence the title ‘Soundsuits.’”

With that in mind, please feast your eyes on Abacus face:

While it may be hard to eat or drink during festivities while wearing this costume, I think this is more than made up for by the fact that you’d have an abacus on your face. Also, if you are really enthusiastic, I’m sure you could think of ways to modify the body covering so that it incorporated even more mathematical objects.

In the end, there are plenty of options for you as you try to decide on a Halloween costume. If you are looking for something mathematically influenced, I hope you have found some ideas here (or in articles from year’s past). If any of you have any additional costume ideas, please let me know!

(Hat tip for Meg for finding Abacus face. Double hat tip to anyone who sends me a replica.)

Math Goes Trick Or Treating Again

Matt — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:30:00 +0000

UPDATE: 2010 costume ideas can be found here!

Around this time last year, I wrote up some suggestions for math-themed Halloween costumes. Based on the traffic I received from that article, I can tell that many people are desperate to integrate their holiday festivities with mathematics. For this reason, and in the interest of not breaking tradition, I thought it would be fitting to suggest a few more ideas for this year.

1) Mathemagician.

In the strictest sense, a mathemagician is simply a mathematician who does magic. Or, perhaps it is a magician who does mathematics. You may (rightfully) be tempted to say that every mathematician does magic, but the tricks of the mathemagician are geared more towards a general audience, although they do often feature mathematics in a starring role. Sadly, the same cannot always be said for the typical magician.

There are examples of mathemagicians in real life, including Arthur Benjamin, who has been the subject of an earlier article (unfortunately not for his skills in mathemagic). However, the mathemagician I have in mind is closer to the kind portrayed in the episode “Grade School Confidential” from season 8 of The Simpsons. Sadly, a clip of the scene in question isn’t available online – the best I can do is show this picture, which should be enough to jog the memory of any fan of the series.

2) Mathematician Who Died in a Spectacular Fashion

Some people may think it sufficient to simply dress as their favorite mathematician for Halloween, and depending on the party, that may be true. But to give your costume that extra bit of Halloween pizazz, I recommend restricting yourself to deceased mathematicians. Not only are dead people big hits at Halloween parties, but in some cases you can incorporate the cause of death to create an even more compelling costume.

Regarding mathematicians who met an untimely demise, my top two choices would be Évariste Galois, who died in a duel under mysterious circumstances at the tender age of 20, and Jørgen Gram, who was killed by a bicycle.

Jaunty joy-rider, or cold-hearted killer?

3) Quant for Hire

This is a good costume if you are going to a party with friends who think themselves political. It’s also good if you really are an unemployed quant. The key here is to wear an outfit that at one point could have been quite valuable, even if it now looks like something you pulled out of the garbage. Failing that, you could always see if they make the costume below in adult sizes.

That’s right, Jimmy – never give up on your dreams.

4) The Monster Group

The monster group is a very large finite simple group. How large? As that Wikipedia link will tell you, it contains 808,017,424,794,512,875,886,459,904,961,710,757,005,754,368,
000,000,000 elements. In case you are curious, this reads as eight hundred eight sexdecillion, seventeen quindecillion, four hundred twenty-four quattuordecillion, seven hundred ninety-four tredecillion, five hundred twelve duodecillion, eight hundred seventy-five undecillion, eight hundred eighty-six decillion, four hundred fifty-nine nonillion, nine hundred four octillion, nine hundred sixty-one septillion, seven hundred ten sextillion, seven hundred fifty-seven quintillion, five quadrillion, seven hundred fifty-four trillion, three hundred sixty-eight billion.

If you wanted your costume to be completely impenetrable, you could just make a t-shirt with the two 196,882 x 196,882 matrices that generate this group. Alternatively, you could simply dress up like a monster. Although technically, I suppose you’d need to dress up as a group of monsters.

I think this would be suitable.

5) Your favorite knot.

While many people no doubt reserve a special place in their hearts for the trefoil knot, there is certainly room for creativity here. For example, check out this dude!

This is but a small sample of what you can do to combine Halloween with mathematics. I would encourage you to think of your own ideas as well. As I’m sure you know, every holiday can be made better with just a splash of math.

Math Goes Trick or Treating

Matt — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:43:00 +0000

Update (Octoboer 2010): 2010 costume ideas can be found here!

Update (October 2009): I’ve written a follow-up article with more math themed costume ideas.

With Halloween but a few short days away, many of you with a love for both dress-up and mathematics are probably thinking hard about what you should be this year. I thought it would be fun to find some good math inspired Halloween costumes using the transformative power of the internet, but unfortunately there really wasn’t much to get excited about. After spending some time scouring, the only costume ideas that were even tangentially related to math that I could find were the following:

1) Nerd Costume Kit

By far the most offensive of these costume choices. Of course, this offers a broader stereotype than that of the mathematician, but the mathematician and the nerd trade at about the same cultural currency value.

What’s most disappointing is the fact that this isn’t even a top quality impersonation of your stereotypical nerd. Anyone thorough enough to make use of the pocket protector would almost certainly keep their pens looking tidier than this guy does.

I guess if you want to reinforce 1980s stereotypes about smart people this is the costume for you. However, I feel like this is right on the border of even being considered a costume. If someone feels so lackadaisical about dressing up, I think it would be more likely for them to simply not do anything.

2) Math Teacher Costume

This one is also fairly uninspired, although it certainly does have simplicity and transparency going for it.

In this case, the real irony is that math teachers do not wear shirts proclaiming that they are math teachers, so anyone who wears this shirt must paradoxically not be dressed in a math teacher costume.

Really, a more convincing math teacher costume would just be a normal, everyday outfit. But in this age of Halloween spectacle, we all know that such a costume simply won’t cut the mustard.

3) Rubik’s Cube Head

This is the best costume I could find, although its link to mathematics is more tenuous than I would prefer. Taken from Discover’s Top Ten Science Halloween Costumes, the Rubik’s Cube Head certainly could lead to a conversation about mathematics, although I find this unlikely.

What’s more likely is that people will ask you things like, “How can you see out of your giant cube head?” The more rambunctuous may pin you down and try to see if the cube is actually functional. For a select few, however, the discussion may turn towards mathematics of the Rubik’s Cube, and at the very least, you should score some points for originality.

Sadly, in general the top ten science costumes from the blog skew heavily towards the science side, and away from the math side. The only other costume from the list that shares a close connection with mathematics is number 3, the Cat-ahedron, which, though charming, I have omitted since to the best of my knowledge, none of my readers are cats.

It is clear that the costume ideas available on the Internet are limited. For those of you wishing to combine math and Halloween, I wish you the best of luck. Do any of you know of costumes that have succesfully synergized the two?