Vi Hart

Victoria Hart (commonly known as Vi Hart) is a popular "Recreational Mathemusician" (a title she made up for herself, as there was no position which outlined exactly what she does) who is widely known through her videos on the Khan Academy and her youtube channel. Hart is passionate about math, and her videos make mathematics come alive in a highly unique way. For those of you who are like me, and can't quite wrap your head around complicated math, her videos will still interest you. My boyfriend, who is taking Environmental Science with a concentration in physics, at the University of Calgary, got me started on the videos, and at first I though I would hate them. Who can make math fun and interesting? Vi Hart can.

The videos, although educational, have a large entertainment factor. Take the mobius strip video for example, where Hart tells a story of two characters, Wind and Mr. Ug, who long to meet one another. Eventually we will learn that Hart has created a mobius strip, which is simply a piece of paper taped into a loop, with a half twist in it. This creates a one-sided piece of paper, which she uses to communicate her story. It may sound strange, and it is, but I find it wonderfully fascinating. Don't let the math scare you away. 

Hart's original videos revolve around doodles sha made in her notebooks during her classes. She always brings something interesting into her videos, such as an infinity of elephants or hexaflexagons. She explains the Fibonacci sequence in plants (and other things), all while keeping the entertainment value high. She often starts off with something boring sounding, such as exponential functions, and then turns the video into an interesting way to look at and understand this math concept. She aims not to teach math, but to show that "simple doodle games can lead to mathematical results so cool and beautiful" (Hart, Vi. Khan Academy. "Doodling in Math: Binary Trees".)

I highly recommend watching a few of her videos. I have linked a few videos below:

Mobius Strip Fruit by the Foot
Spongebob's Pineapple Under the Sea