Playing with shapes of constant width

Tonight’s project was just for fun – they boys both had long days of school / music.

So, last night I downloaded and printed some shapes of constant width from Thingiverse:

Anenome’s Object of Constant Width on Thingiverse

With 4 of them on the table I asked each of the boys what they thought the shapes were and then let them play around with them. After they played for a bit I put a book on the shapes and asked them how they thought the book would move as the shapes rolled.

Here’s what my younger son thought:

Here’s what my older son thought:

I always find it fun to hear what kids think about complicated shapes. Lots of neat ideas and then a good “wow” when you learn the secret property!