MathAtlas

A few months ago I wrote about revisiting my 10 year coding birthday project. The original plan was to build a Rubik's Cube solver. That didn't quite work out, but along the way I pivoted to a group theory playground and had way more fun with it. That pivot kept going. And going. And now it's something I never expected: a full-blown interactive math experience with over 40 modules.

It's called MathAtlas.

The Idea

The best way I can describe it is like visiting a science and technology museum, but from your couch. You know those exhibits where you press a button and watch something come alive? That's the vibe I was going for. It's not trying to be a textbook or a course, just beautiful, interactive math you can poke at and explore.

I wanted it to feel like play. You don't need to know what a hyperbolic tiling is to watch one unfold in real time and think "whoa, that's cool." You don't need a topology background to drag a coffee mug into a donut and see why mathematicians say they're the same thing. The hope is that the experience sparks enough curiosity that you go look things up on your own.

It's not rigorous, but I think fun is underrated when it comes to learning math.

The Stack

Next.js + TypeScript on Vercel. This is my go-to for side projects at this point. The DX is just too good. Vercel's ephemeral preview environments were instrumental for rapid iteration. Every push gets its own deploy, so I could share links with friends and get feedback without worrying about breaking the main site.

Claude Code for rapid prototyping. I've written about my experience using Claude Code before, and this project pushed it further than anything I've done. When you're building 40+ interactive visualizations, speed matters. Claude Code crushed the UI work and let me focus on the parts that were actually hard: getting the math right, making the animations feel good, and deciding what to build next.

ElevenLabs for audio narration. This one is personal. I love audiobooks, and I wanted every module to have a narrated walkthrough you could just listen to. Think of it like a museum audio guide. I burned a lot of credits on this. There are hours and hours of audio across the site. The generation pipeline runs through GitHub Actions, and the mp3 files live in Vercel Blob storage.

What I Learned

The biggest surprise was how the project kept expanding. What started as a Rubik's Cube solver became a group theory playground, which became a topology visualization, which became... everything from Fourier analysis to algebraic geometry to particle physics. Each module I built made me curious about the next adjacent topic. It was like falling down the best Wikipedia rabbit hole, except I was building interactive demos the whole way down.

The other thing I learned is that side projects are way more fun when you stop trying to scope them. I had no roadmap, no timeline, no spec. Just "what sounds interesting today?" Some modules took an afternoon, some took a week, and some I scrapped entirely. That freedom is what kept it fun for months.

Check It Out

If any of this sounds interesting, go poke around: MathAtlas.app

And if it inspires you to learn more about any of the topics, then it did exactly what I hoped it would.