Saturday, March 9, 2013

The Museum of Mathematics

I have been trying to find a news story once a month that pertained to mathematics that I could discuss. Last month, I ended up using a website I found, but this time, I actually got a news story. On Sunday, I was told by multiple people that the Museum of Mathematics was on CBS, which was exciting for me. Click here to see the news story.

I have met Glenn Whitney on a few occasions, including at Gathering 4 Gardner in Atlanta (click here to see a post I did about that experience) and the World Science Festival Street Fair in New York City. Each time I see him there, they have set up their Math Midway, which features many fascinating ways to have fun with mathematics, including the tricycle with square wheels and a machine that solves quadratic equations by the crank of a lever.

I visited MoMath on December 27th, which might have been a mistake on my part because it was packed with people. However, I was happy at the same time that a whole room of people were going to walk out seeing mathematics in a new light.

On my blog, my posts are mainly about pure mathematics. Pure mathematics analyzes math simply for the sake of analyzing it, while applied mathematics looks for its applications to science, engineering, finance, and society. I do have many posts labeled Practical, but even these are strictly mathematical. I never introduce science and engineering concepts (mainly because I don't know them).

MoMath gave me the opportunity to learn how math can be applied to other fields. I have ridden the square wheeled tricycle, which is a way to apply mathematics to transportation, in a fun and creative way. Using some geometry, you can find a path for any shaped wheels, which I found pretty cool.

If you are interested in pure mathematics, that is what this blog and many others cater to. If you are interested in applied mathematics, go to MoMath. It really is a fun way to look at math that you never would have done before.

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