As a child, Mary Everest Boole discovered several cards adorned with evenly spaced holes along the edges. By tightening threads from each hole to its opposite, she created a line that gracefully crossed the center. This exercise allowed her to form a symmetrical curve and fostered her intuition for formal geometry.

A few years later, in 1864, she found herself a widow with five children. Despite the academic establishment’s disregard for women’s contributions, she persevered as a librarian and math tutor in London.

Boole believed that engaging children with mathematical objects, like her curve stitching activities, could deepen their understanding. She connected mathematical imagination and creativity in various ways, using fables and history to elucidate logic and algebra.

Now you can explore by creating a “string art” image inspired by her work. Begin with a pair of horizontal and vertical axes, each 10 cm long and marked with numbers 1-10 spaced 1 cm apart. Create a straight line from point 1 on the horizontal axis to point 10 on the vertical axis. Continue connecting points 2 to 9, 3 to 8, and so forth. While all lines are straight, the intersections will form curves.

You may have used drawing software to control the path’s shape via two endpoints. These represent Bezier curves, crucial in computer-aided design, reminiscent of Boole’s early stitching curves fixed to the axes and their intersection points.

With practice, you should be able to draw lines without numbering them—experiment with different colors as well. She recommended it as a stitching exercise rather than a drawing, which can also be approached using threads. Simply substitute the dots with holes.

Like other mathematical concepts, this idea invites exploration. For instance, alter the axes to meet at varying angles, or examine what occurs when the distances between dots differ, such as 1 cm for one line and 2 cm for another.

Consider drawing a circle or another shape, distributing dots evenly around it, then systematically connecting them. For example, connect all dots in a clockwise fashion for ten dots. You can even recreate the boat-like image shown above (center, right). What else can you create?

For more creative projects, visit newscientist.com/maker