I’d like to be honest with you. Normally, I would cringe at discussing anything mathematical. I know, but bear with me. This time, I want to show you something awesome, even to those of you who aren’t the biggest fan of numbers, like me. This time, it’s not just about learning about equations in the classroom. This time, art and math work together to produce stunning results.

Now even I find that interesting. (You’d just have to know me.) Math may seem, to most of you, to be a pursuit of formulas, but math also produces ratios that create the most striking works of art.

There are seven instances that art and math worked together to break left/right brain scenarios.

1. Snow Art

How do you create art with mathematics? The epic snowscapes in the European Alps, created by Simon Beck, is a prime example of exquisite mathematical art. Using only his compass and snowshoes, Beck created a Koch Snowflake and Sierpinkski Triangle in 11 hours flat. Wow!

My previous article regarding dreams and how they’ve influenced my life started the same way I’d like to start this one: It has been an age-old debate as to what exactly dreams are. Many questions have arisen on the topic, and dreams are filled with so much speculative history that it has become a concept of wondrous intrigue. Throughout documented time, dreams have been revered, feared, judged, and interpreted. Entire careers have been created for the purpose of understanding dreams, and entire lives have been spent driven toward answering the question: what are dreams and how can they help us? This article is not meant to answer these questions specifically, but to shed light on one aspect of our dreamscape which I have personally studied in depth: our dream sanctuary.

To be more precise, the power of documented words when activated verbally and fulfilled with intention.

Words and Water

Your first thought on this subject probably goes in the direction of the late Dr. Masaru Emoto, and why not. His extensive research clearly demonstrates when written and spoken words are applied to glass jars containing water, the molecular structure is altered. He would flash freeze samples enabling him to examine the variations under a microscope. Later tests with rice in water were visible. When one jar with words attached like peace, happiness, joy and I love you, were compared to a jar with words like bad, horrible, disgusting and I hate you, the loving jar of rice in water would remain clear and pure for a long duration, whilst the jar with I hate you, would rapidly change color and decay.

My personal favorite is cutting a freshly picked apple in half and placing the two pieces in separate glass jars, again using the written words followed by a daily verbal citation of the words. One half of the apple stays fresh whilst the other half decomposes quickly.

Whilst school feels like a century ago, there are often moments I think back to my school days and ponder upon the things I wish somebody had taught me when I was younger. There are plenty of skills, information and general pieces of knowledge that should be taught in schools that would save a lot of stress, heartache and embarrassment in our later years. Whilst our wise owl teachers probably did pass on some nuggets of advice throughout our school years, it was very unlikely that we actually listened or realised how important it was. If I could add self-awareness and life lessons to the curriculum, here’s what I would teach:

1. Failures are okay

So in school, a fail is a bad thing, sometimes even an awful thing that you get told is going to affect your life forever. Sure, qualifications are important to get you onto the next stepping stone in life, but they aren’t the be-all and end-all. It’s okay to fail a test, or not be able to score that goal. Making mistakes is the only genuine way to learn and the sooner you realise that, the better. Accepting your mistakes is something everybody should be taught to do from a young age and that as long as you learn from them, you are doing okay.

Your music tastes or the type of music you listen to can actually give big clues into the way in which you think, researchers at the Cambridge University have found.

The study, which was published in PLOS ONE journal, focuses specifically on two types of thinking: empathizers and systemizers. Empathizers are able to tune into the emotions of others whereas a systemizer is more likely to prefer rules and patterns that they can analyze, rather than something as subjective as human emotion.

Why we listen to the music that we choose to listen to is a big debate within the psychological field. What determines if we like a particular singer over another? Why do you like one specific genre over the others? One of the largest factors over why we favour specific types of music over others, researchers have argued, is explicit traits such as age, but it goes much further than that.