Math and juggling: ISU students can now take a class that mixes the two subjects.

Steve Butler, assistant professor in mathematics, is teaching Math 595, “The Mathematics of Juggling,” this semester.

Butler said he has many reasons to teach the class, but one of them is that he is writing a book about the mathematics of juggling.

“I’ve got to make sure I understand everything and how to explain it. The way you do that is to teach. It makes you really think about the subject,” Butler said.

However, he also wanted to teach the class because it is an interesting approach to mathematics.

“This is a great way to highlight mathematics. What makes math interesting to people? Part of the problem is that people don’t see the really good stuff in mathematics. They say, ‘Oh, there’s this algebra stuff and then there’s calculus, and that’s the end of it’,” Butler said.

This isn’t the case. Butler said mathematicians work on many different topics.

“There are more mathematicians working now and more mathematics being done now than at any other point in history. We work in various fields, and one of the things we look at is juggling,” Butler said.

In fact, there is an enormous amount of mathematics that can be connected to juggling.

“Juggling is about controlling patterns. Math is about studying patterns. So it’s a very natural connection to make,” Butler said.

He said that many juggling patterns were not invented until mathematicians became involved.

“They discovered there were a lot of beautiful patterns. They are really simple, and very easy to discover once you have the rules in place, but aren’t necessarily the most obvious thing people would think of.”

However, he was adamant about the fact that math will never be able to completely capture juggling.

“I don’t want to say we are removing art from juggling. There’s still plenty of room left for artistic expression. We’re just trying to get into what kinds of patterns are available,” Butler said.

Many of the students taking the class are also members of the Iowa State Juggling and Unicycling Club.

“It’s a pretty fun class to learn,” said Jaleb Jay, sophomore in mathematics and the treasurer of the Juggling Club. “Being part of the club, some people know about the number sequences, but going in further, seeing why they work the way they do, and how to count them all brings much more interesting things to the juggling.”

Butler said it’s important to remember that juggling is a learned skill.

“It takes practice. I think often times people expect to be able to juggle right away,” Butler said. “In some sense I think that also happens to people with mathematics. They try the first hard problem and say, ‘I can’t do it. I guess I’m not a mathematician.’ It takes practice.”

In the future, Butler is thinking about teaching classes that explore the mathematics of puzzles, origami and tiles, but he said he would definitely be teaching this class again.