Victoria Hart (born 1988), commonly known as Vi Hart (), is an American mathematician and YouTuber. They describe themselves as a "recreational mathemusician" and are well-known for creating mathematical videos on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
. Hart founded the virtual reality research group eleVR and has co-authored several research papers on
computational geometry
Computational geometry is a branch of computer science devoted to the study of algorithms which can be stated in terms of geometry. Some purely geometrical problems arise out of the study of computational geometric algorithms, and such problems ar ...
and the
mathematics of paper folding.
Together with another YouTube mathematics popularizer,
Matt Parker, Hart won the 2018 Communications Award of the
Joint Policy Board for Mathematics
The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) consists of the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
The Board has nea ...
for "entertaining, thought-provoking mathematics and music videos on YouTube that explain mathematical concepts through doodles".
Early life and education
Hart is the child of mathematical sculptor
George W. Hart, and received a degree in music at
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system' ...
.
Hart identifies as "gender agnostic"; in a video released in 2015, they spoke about their lack of gender identity—including lacking
non-binary
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typically ...
identities such as ''agender''—and their attitude to gendered terms such as pronouns as a "linguistic game" that they were not interested in playing. They indicated that they have no preference and do not care which pronouns they are called by.
Career
Hart's career as a mathematics popularizer began in 2010 with a video series about "doodling in math class". After these
recreational mathematics
Recreational mathematics is mathematics carried out for recreation (entertainment) rather than as a strictly research and application-based professional activity or as a part of a student's formal education. Although it is not necessarily limited ...
videos — which introduced topics like
fractal dimension
In mathematics, more specifically in fractal geometry, a fractal dimension is a ratio providing a statistical index of complexity comparing how detail in a pattern (strictly speaking, a fractal pattern) changes with the scale at which it is me ...
s — grew popular, they were featured in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' and on
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
,
eventually gaining the support of the
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization created in 2008 by Sal Khan. Its goal is creating a set of online tools that help educate students. The organization produces short lessons in the form of videos. Its website also i ...
and making videos for the educational site as their "Resident Mathemusician". Many of Hart's videos combined mathematics and music, such as "
Twelve tones", which was called "deliriously and delightfully profound" by
''Salon''.
Together with
Henry Segerman, Hart wrote "The Quaternion Group as a Symmetry Group", which was included in the anthology ''The Best Writing on Mathematics 2015''.
In 2014, Hart founded a research group called eleVR, with Emily Eifler and Andrea Hawksley, to research
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...
(VR). The group created VR videos, and had also collaborated on educational computer games. They created the game Hypernom, where the player has to eat part of
4 dimensional polytopes which are
stereographically projected into 3D and viewed using a
virtual reality headset
A virtual reality headset (or VR headset) is a head-mounted device that provides virtual reality for the wearer. VR headsets are widely used with VR video games but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. VR ...
. In June, eleVR released an
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...
web video player that worked with the
Oculus Rift
Oculus Rift is a discontinued line of virtual reality headsets developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, a division of Meta Platforms, released on March 28, 2016.
In 2012 Oculus initiated a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Rift's development, af ...
. In the same year Hart created the playable blog post ''
Parable of the Polygons'' with
Nicky Case. The game was based on economist
Thomas Schelling
Thomas Crombie Schelling (April 14, 1921 – December 13, 2016) was an American economist and professor of foreign policy, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, College ...
's ''Dynamic Models of Segregation''. In May 2016, eleVR joined
Y Combinator
Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, St ...
Research (YCR) as part of the
Human Advancement Research Community (HARC) project, in which Hart was listed as a Principal Investigator.
As of 2020, Hart is a Senior Research Project Manager at
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...
.
See also
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Flexagon
In geometry, flexagons are flat models, usually constructed by folding strips of paper, that can be ''flexed'' or folded in certain ways to reveal faces besides the two that were originally on the back and front.
Flexagons are usually square o ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Vi
Living people
Mathematics educators
21st-century American mathematicians
Recreational mathematicians
Stony Brook University alumni
American YouTubers
Education-related YouTube channels
Place of birth missing (living people)
Mathematical artists
Mathematics popularizers
Non-binary scientists
1988 births
Microsoft people