The National Museum of Mathematics or MoMath is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

dedicated to

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It opened on December 15, 2012. It is located at 11 East 26th Street between Fifth and

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Avenues, across from

Madison Square Park Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for Founding Father James Madison, fourth President of the United States. ...

in the

NoMad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

neighborhood. It is the only museum dedicated to mathematics in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, and features over thirty

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

exhibits. The mission of the museum is to "enhance public understanding and perception of mathematics". The museum is known for a special

tricycle A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) three-wheeled vehicle. Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for passenger transport) and freight trikes, ...

with

square wheel A square wheel is a wheel that, instead of being circular, has the shape of a square. While literal square wheels exist, a more common use is as an idiom meaning feeling bad and naive (see reinventing the wheel). A square wheel can roll smoothly ...

s, which operates smoothly on a

catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superficia ...

surface.

History

In 2006 the Goudreau Museum on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, at the time the only museum in the United States dedicated to mathematics, closed its doors. In response, a group led by founder and former CEO Glen Whitney met to explore the opening of a new museum. They received a charter from the

New York State Department of Education The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the supervision for all public schools in New York and all standardized testing, as well as the production and administration o ...

in 2009, and raised over 22 million dollars in under four years. With this funding, a space was leased in the Goddard Building at 11-13 East 26th Street, located in the

Madison Square North Historic District __NOTOC__ The Madison Square North Historic District is in Manhattan, New York City, and was created on June 26, 2001 by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. The Historic District lies primarily within the Manhattan neighborhood known as ...

. Despite some opposition to the architectural plans within the local community, permission for construction was granted by the

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

and the Department of Buildings. The current board chair is John Overdeck, co-chairman of Two Sigma Investments.

Programs

* Math Midway is a traveling exhibition of math-based interactive displays. The exhibits include a square-wheeled tricycle that travels smoothly over an undulating

cycloidal In geometry, a cycloid is the curve traced by a point on a circle as it rolls along a straight line without slipping. A cycloid is a specific form of trochoid and is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another cur ...

track; the ''Ring of Fire'', which uses lasers to intersect three-dimensional objects with a two-dimensional plane to uncover interesting shapes; and an "organ function grinder" which allows users to create their own

mathematical function In mathematics, a function from a set to a set assigns to each element of exactly one element of .; the words map, mapping, transformation, correspondence, and operator are often used synonymously. The set is called the domain of the functi ...

s and see the results. After making its debut at the

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in 2009, Math Midway traveled the country, reaching more than a half million visitors. The Midway's schedule included stops in New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, California, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, Florida, Indiana, and Oregon. In 2016, the Math Midway exhibit was sold to the

Science Centre Singapore The Science Centre Singapore, previously known as Singapore Science Centre is a scientific institution in Jurong East, Singapore, specialising in the promotion of scientific and technological education for the general public. It houses over 85 ...

. * Math Midway 2 Go (MM2GO) is a spinoff of Math Midway. MM2GO includes six of the most popular Math Midway Exhibits. MM2GO began traveling to science festivals, schools, community centers, and libraries in the autumn of 2012. * Math Encounters is a monthly speaker series presented by the Museum of Math and the

Simons Foundation The Simons Foundation is a private foundation established in 1994 by Marilyn and Jim Simons with offices in New York City. As one of the largest charitable organizations in the US with assets of over $5 billion in 2022, the foundation's mission ...

. The lectures initially took place at

Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates und ...

in Manhattan on the first Wednesday of each month, but moved to MoMath's visitor center at 11 East 26th Street in March, 2013. Every month a different mathematician is invited to deliver a lecture. Lecturers have included

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

's Director of Research

Peter Norvig Peter Norvig (born December 14, 1956) is an American computer scientist and Distinguished Education Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. He previously served as a director of research and search quality at Google. Norvig is t ...

, journalist Paul Hoffman, and computer scientist Craig Kaplan. Examples of topics are "The Geometry of Origami", "The Patterns of Juggling", and "Mathematical Morsels from The Simpsons and Futurama". The lectures are meant to be accessible and engaging for high school students and adults. The first lecture occurred on March 3, 2011. Twenty unique lectures had been delivered . * Family Fridays began in April 2014 and occur once a month. MoMath and

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...

launched the initiative to provide free mathematical opportunities to low-income families in the form of an event series with new activities and presentations each month. In 2017, the sponsorship was taken over by Two Sigma.

Exhibits

Museum of Mathematics-New York-Square Wheeled Tricycles

In October 2016, the exhibit ''The Insides of Things: The Art of Miguel Berrocal'' was opened, displaying a collection of puzzle sculptures by Spanish artist

Miguel Ortiz Berrocal Miguel Ortiz Berrocal ( Villanueva de Algaidas, Málaga, 28 September 1933 – Antequera, Málaga, 31 May 2006) was a Spanish figurative and abstract sculptor. He is best known for his puzzle sculptures, which can be disassembled into ma ...

(1933-2006), donated by the late Samuel Sensiper. Each sculpture can be disassembled into small interlocking pieces, eventually revealing a small piece of jewelry or other surprise.

Visiting professorship

On August 2, 2018, MoMath announced the creation of a Distinguished Chair for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics. Princeton professor and

Fields Medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. The name of the award ho ...

winner

Manjul Bhargava Manjul Bhargava (born 8 August 1974) is a Canadian-American mathematician. He is the Brandon Fradd, Class of 1983, Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, the Stieltjes Professor of Number Theory at Leiden University, and also holds A ...

was named as the first recipient of this position. Dr. Bhargava was succeeded by

Peter Winkler Peter Mann Winkler is a research mathematician, author of more than 125 research papers in mathematics and patent holder in a broad range of applications, ranging from cryptography to marine navigation.Information listed oPeter Winkler's homepagea ...

, Dartmouth College Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science as the Distinguished Chair for 2019-2020. In July 2020, Rutgers university Professor was announced as the Distinguished Chair for 2020-21. Dr. Kontorovich presented public programs concerning the history of mathematical ideas and the intersection of mathematics and music. The 2021-22 Distinguished Chair for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics was

Steven Strogatz Steven Henry Strogatz (), born August 13, 1959, is an American mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He is known for his work on nonlinear systems, including contributions to the study o ...

, Cornell University Professor of Applied Mathematics, an award-winning mathematician, author and broadcaster. The fifth Distinguished Chair, announced in June 2021 is

Tim Chartier Timothy P. Chartier (born 1969) is Joseph R. Morton Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Davidson College, known for his expertise in sports analytics and bracketology, for his popular mathematics books, and for the "mime-matics" show ...

, a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Davidson College and a professionally-trained mime. At the same time, MoMath announced that the 2023-24 Distinguished Chair will be

Ingrid Daubechies Baroness Ingrid Daubechies ( ; ; born 17 August 1954) is a Belgian physicist and mathematician. She is best known for her work with wavelets in image compression. Daubechies is recognized for her study of the mathematical methods that enhance i ...

, Professor of Mathematics at Duke University. National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) Appoints Dr. Tim Chartier, Joseph R. Morton Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Davidson College, as the Fifth Annual Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics in 2022; and Dr. Ingrid Daubechies, Professor of Mathematics at Duke University as the Sixth Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics in 2023
The National Museum of Mathematics, June 1, 2022

References

External links

* *
Math EncountersMath Midway
{{Authority control Museums in Manhattan Children's museums in New York City Science museums in New York City 2009 establishments in New York City Midtown Manhattan Mathematics museums Association of Science-Technology Centers member institutions Museums established in 2009