Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2013 - (Page 27)

Come with me and you'll be In a world of pure imagination Take a look and you'll see Into your imagination -"Pure Imagination" from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory For Glen Whitney, founder of the Museum of Mathematics, this song was the perfect soundtrack for the unveiling of a project he'd been envisioning and working on for over four years. In December 2012, the song filled the New York museum as supporters previewed the space a few days ahead of its public opening. With co-executive director Cindy Lawrence and designer Tim Nissen-and with the support of passionate trustees, advisors, volunteers, and mentors- Whitney had created a space where math is not only beautiful to behold, but fun to experience. At MoMath, as the museum is aﬀectionately known, visitors engage with math in unexpected ways-leading, Whitney hopes, to an appreciation that lasts long after they walk out the museum doors. You were a fan of the Goudreau Museum of Mathematics in Art and Science, which closed in 2006. Are there elements of that museum that you wanted to capture in your museum? Absolutely. We wanted an immersion atmosphere, where you step into a world of math and there are math-y things everywhere. The Goudreau did this with lots of polyhedra hung from the rafters-unusual polyhedra that you wouldn't normally see. We have a three-dimensional shadow of a four-dimensional truncated hyperdodecahedron hanging not too far from the entrance. Right in the door as you come in, we have Matthew Brand's Light Grooves, which are almost like three-dimensional sculptures of light. Everything is vivid and eye-catching and immediately defies expectations as soon as people step in the door. The other thing about the Goudreau was that as a visitor you were very involved. There were puzzles. There were shapes that you tried to fit together and so on. The visitor breathed life into everything in the Goudreau. It was all about personal exploration. We've tried to create that kind of atmosphere here. There are lots of open-ended things that you can play with; you can discover what you want to discover. Everybody can explore the things that are meaningful to them, at their own speed. Your website says that the museum is designed for kids in grades four to eight, but it's clear that it attracts and engages a much broader audience than that. Why do you think that is? Math is something that can be appreciated at many different levels of depth. Take our square-wheeled tricycle, which has become the museum's iconic exhibit in many ways. On a simple level, you can just enjoy the sensation of riding on the tricycle. At the next level you might ask, "How can you make square wheels roll?" And then you'd realize that there's something special about the track. At the next level you might say, "Hey, I noticed that the wheels on each tricycle are all three different sizes. Why is that?" and you learn about the linear relationship between circumference and radius of a circle. And then maybe in a couple levels you would ask, "Well, what kind of curve is that on the track?" And the answer is that it's a catenary, which is the kind of curve you get when you hold a chain at two ends and let it dangle freely. And by the time you're asking, "Well, how do you know it's a imagine 27

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2013

In My Own Words
Interested in Econ
The World in Numbers
Reckoning with Randomness
Elliptic Curves
A League of Our Own
More Than Math
Developing Your Numbersense
Where Math Meets Imagination
Selected Opportunities & Resources
Dancing in the Footsteps of My Ancestors
Off the Shelf
Word Wise
Exploring Career Options
Planning Ahead for College
Students Review
Mark Your Calendar
Knossos Game

Imagine Magazine - Johns Hopkins - November/December 2013