Coming Soon: The New York City Math Museum
New York's newest museum is anything but formulaic
- By Mark Strauss
- Smithsonian magazine, June 2012, Subscribe
The sculpture is made from straight strings. But step inside it, and you’re surrounded by curves. A paradox? You’ve just had an encounter with exotic geometry in the form of a hyperhyperboloid.
Mind-opening experiences are the whole point of Manhattan’s Museum of Mathematics (opening this fall), which has what many consider a tough mission: teaching kids that math is exciting.
The prime mover is Glen Whitney, a former math professor and hedge-fund analyst who has raised $30 million to build what he calls a “safe place to love math.”
The subject could use some love in a country where Jimmy Buffett sings “Math Suks” and student test scores lag most industrialized nations. Whitney blames an educational mind-set that extols liberal arts as inspirational and demotes math to merely useful—ignoring “the beauty of patterns and numbers and shapes.”
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Comments (7)
Today is August 4th and I see posts about the missing "test your math skills" note in the article from the print magazine. Really not taking care of your readers and supporters if this has still not been rectified!?!?
Posted by Manny Feris on August 4,2012 | 10:40 PM
Where is your promised article "Test your math skills with a fast game at..."?
Posted by Sylvia Tolman on June 30,2012 | 12:20 PM
In the Fast Forward Do The Math we are asked to test our math skills with a fast game ag Smithsonian.com/math but I could not get to the game. Where is it???
Posted by Rita Levine on May 28,2012 | 08:08 PM
When we built the straight lined structures at Kansas City International Airport to house 747 overhauls the structure was called a hyperbolic paraboloid. Has the name been changed??
Posted by Jim Gibson on May 28,2012 | 07:48 AM
Where is the math game mentioned in the magazine?
Posted by Suzanne on May 27,2012 | 08:24 PM
I'm a subscriber. In the hard copy article it says to come to this link and test math skills with a fast game. I'm not seeing it- what gives?
Posted by Brett Saum on May 27,2012 | 11:17 AM
Where is the "Test your math skills with a fast game at..." promised in your print edition article, page 108, titled "Do the Math".
Posted by Paul A Renard on May 24,2012 | 08:24 PM